The Supplemental Poverty Measure
After more than 45 years of debate, the U.S. Commerce Department recently decided to regularly publish an alternative to the official poverty rate. This new Supplemental Poverty Measure will not replace the current official measure. Nor, will it be used to determine eligibility for government programs. But, it will be published alongside the current poverty statistics as part of the official poverty report released each fall. The first official SPM estimates will be released in the fall of 2011.
The SPM has many advantages over the official poverty measure. Examples include a more defensible adjustment for family size and composition, an expanded definition of the family unit that includes cohabitors, and a measure of income that more closely captures the resources available for consumption. A description of the SPM from Interagency Technical Working Group is available as a pdf download.
