[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 33 (Friday, February 18, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8373-8375]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-3144]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary


Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines

AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice provides an update of the HHS poverty guidelines 
to account for last (calendar) year's increase in prices as measured by 
the Consumer Price Index.

EFFECTIVE DATE: These guidelines go into effect on the day they are 
published (unless an office administering a program using the 
guidelines specifies a different effective date for that particular 
program).

ADDRESSES: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and 
Evaluation, Room 404E, Humphrey Building, Department of Health and 
Human Services (HHS), Washington, DC 20201.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about how the poverty 
guidelines are used or how income is defined in a particular program, 
contact the Federal (or other) office that is responsible for that 
program.
    For general questions about the poverty guidelines (but NOT for 
questions about a particular program that uses the poverty guidelines), 
contact Gordon Fisher, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning 
and Evaluation, Room 404E, Humphrey Building, Department of Health and 
Human Services, Washington, DC 20201--telephone: (202) 690-7507; 
persons with Internet access may visit the poverty guidelines Internet 
site at http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty.
    For information about the Hill-Burton Uncompensated Services 
Program (no-fee or reduced-fee health care services at certain 
hospitals and other health care facilities for certain persons meeting 
eligibility criteria involving the poverty guidelines), contact the 
Office of the Director, Division of Facilities Compliance and Recovery, 
Health Resources and Services Administration, HHS, Room 10-105, 
Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20857. To 
speak to a person, call (301) 443-5656. To receive a Hill-Burton 
information package, call 1-800-638-0742 (for callers outside Maryland) 
or 1-800-492-0359 (for callers in Maryland), and leave your name and 
address on the Hotline recording. Persons with Internet access may 
visit the Division of Facilities Compliance and Recovery Internet Home 
page site at http://www.hrsa.gov/osp/dfcr. The Division of Facilities 
Compliance and Recovery notes that as set by 42 CFR 124.505(b), the 
effective date of this update of the poverty guidelines for facilities 
obligated under the Hill-Burton Uncompensated Services Program is sixty 
days from the date of this publication.
    For information about the percentage multiple of the poverty 
guidelines to be used on immigration forms such as USCIS Form I-864, 
Affidavit of Support, contact U.S. Citizenship and Immigration 
Services. To obtain information on the most recent applicable poverty 
guidelines from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, call 1-800-
375-5283. Persons with Internet access may obtain the information from 
the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Internet site at http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/affsupp.htm.
    For information about the Department of Labor's Lower Living 
Standard Income Level (an alternative eligibility criterion with the 
poverty guidelines for certain programs under the Workforce Investment 
Act of 1998), contact Janeice Youngblood, Employment and Training 
Administration, U.S. Department of Labor--telephone: (202) 693-3606--e-
mail: [email protected]; persons with Internet access may 
visit the Employment and Training Administration's Lower Living 
Standard

[[Page 8374]]

Income Level Internet site at http://www.doleta.gov/llsil.
    For information about the number of people in poverty since 1959 or 
about the Census Bureau poverty thresholds, contact the Housing and 
Household Economic Statistics Division information staff (HHES-Info), 
Room G251, Federal Office Building 3, U.S. Census Bureau, 
Washington, DC 20233-8500--telephone: (301) 763-3242. Persons with 
Internet access may visit the Poverty section of the Census Bureau's 
Internet site at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html or the 
U.S. Census Bureau Question and Answer Center at http://ask.census.gov.

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                                                               Poverty
                   Persons in family unit                     guideline
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2005 Poverty Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous States and the District of
                                Columbia
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1..........................................................       $9,570
2..........................................................       12,830
3..........................................................       16,090
4..........................................................       19,350
5..........................................................       22,610
6..........................................................       25,870
7..........................................................       29,130
8..........................................................       32,390
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For family units with more than 8 persons, add $3,260 for each
 additional person......................................................
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                   2005 Poverty Guidelines for Alaska
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1..........................................................      $11,950
2..........................................................       16,030
3..........................................................       20,110
4..........................................................       24,190
5..........................................................       28,270
6..........................................................       32,350
7..........................................................       36,430
8..........................................................       40,510
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For family units with more than 8 persons, add $4,080 for each
 additional person......................................................
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                   2005 Poverty Guidelines for Hawaii
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1..........................................................      $11,010
2..........................................................       14,760
3..........................................................       18,510
4..........................................................       22,260
5..........................................................       26,010
6..........................................................       29,760
7..........................................................       33,510
8..........................................................       37,260
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For family units with more than 8 persons, add $3,750 for each
 additional person. ....................................................
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Separate poverty guideline figures for Alaska and Hawaii reflect Office
  of Economic Opportunity administrative practice beginning in the 1966-
  1970 period. Note that the Census Bureau poverty thresholds--the
  version of the poverty measure used for statistical purposes--have
  never had separate figures for Alaska and Hawaii. The poverty
  guidelines are not defined for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands,
  American Samoa, Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the
  Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern
  Mariana Islands, and Palau. In cases in which a Federal program using
  the poverty guidelines serves any of those jurisdictions, the Federal
  office that administers the program is responsible for deciding
  whether to use the contiguous-states-and-D.C. guidelines for those
  jurisdictions or to follow some other procedure.

    The preceding figures are the 2005 update of the poverty guidelines 
required by section 673(2) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 
(OBRA) of 1981 (Pub. L. 97-35--reauthorized by Pub. L. 105-285, Section 
201 (1998)). As required by law, this update reflects last year's 
change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U); it was done using the same 
procedure used in previous years. (The poverty guidelines are 
calculated each year from the latest published Census Bureau poverty 
thresholds--not from the previous year's guidelines. Besides the 
inflation adjustment, the guidelines are also rounded and adjusted to 
standardize the differences between family sizes.)
    Section 673(2) of OBRA-1981 (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)) requires the use of 
these poverty guidelines as an eligibility criterion for the Community 
Services Block Grant program. The poverty guidelines are also used as 
an eligibility criterion by a number of other Federal programs (both 
HHS and non-HHS). Due to confusing legislative language dating back to 
1972, the poverty guidelines have sometimes been mistakenly referred to 
as the ``OMB'' (Office of Management and Budget) poverty guidelines or 
poverty line. In fact, OMB has never issued the guidelines; the 
guidelines are issued each year by the Department of Health and Human 
Services. The poverty guidelines may be formally referenced as ``the 
poverty guidelines updated periodically in the Federal Register by the 
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the authority of 42 
U.S.C. 9902(2).''
    The poverty guidelines are a simplified version of the poverty 
thresholds that the Census Bureau uses for statistical purposes--to 
prepare its estimates of the number of persons and families in poverty. 
The poverty guidelines issued by the Department of Health and Human 
Services are used for administrative purposes--for instance, for 
determining whether a person or family is financially eligible for 
assistance or services under a particular Federal program. Since the 
poverty guidelines in this notice--the 2005 guidelines--reflect price 
changes through calendar year 2004, they are approximately equal to the 
poverty thresholds for calendar year 2004 which the Census Bureau 
expects to issue in August 2005. (A preliminary version of the 2004 
thresholds is now available from the Census Bureau.)
    In certain cases, as noted in the relevant authorizing legislation 
or program regulations, a program uses the poverty guidelines as only 
one of several eligibility criteria, or uses a percentage multiple of 
the guidelines (for example, 125 percent or 185 percent of the 
guidelines). Non-Federal organizations that use the poverty guidelines 
under their own authority in non-Federally-funded activities can choose 
to use a percentage multiple of the guidelines such as 125 percent or 
185 percent.
    In some cases, these poverty guidelines may not become effective 
for a particular program until a regulation or notice specifically 
applying to the program in question has been issued.
    The poverty guidelines given above should be used for both farm and 
non-farm families. Similarly, these guidelines should be used for both 
aged and non-aged units. The poverty guidelines have never had an aged/
non-aged distinction; only the Census Bureau poverty thresholds have 
separate figures for aged and non-aged one-person and two-person units.
    Note that this notice no longer provides definitions of ``income,'' 
``family,'' ``unrelated individual,'' and ``household.'' This is 
because there are no universal administrative definitions of these 
terms that are valid for all programs that use the poverty guidelines. 
Since the definitions previously included were illustrative only and 
were not meant to be binding, it was decided to omit them. To find out 
whether income is before taxes or after taxes, or whether a particular 
type of income should be counted in determining eligibility for a 
specific program, or for what time period income should be counted, or 
what precise definition of ``family'' or ``household'' is used by a 
particular program, or whether a particular person should be counted in 
determining income eligibility, please consult the office or 
organization administering the

[[Page 8375]]

program in question; that office or organization has the responsibility 
for making decisions about such definitions (to the extent that the 
definition is not already contained in legislation or regulations).

    Dated: February 14, 2005.
Michael O. Leavitt,
Secretary of Health and Human Services.
[FR Doc. 05-3144 Filed 2-15-05; 12:57 pm]
BILLING CODE 4154-05-P