[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 14 (Friday, January 23, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4199-4201]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-1510]


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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.

DATES: Effective Date: Date of publication, 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 
guidelines are used or how income is defined in a particular program, 
contact the Federal, state, or local office that is responsible for 
that program. Contact information for two frequently requested programs 
is given below:
    For information about the Hill-Burton Uncompensated Services 
Program (free or reduced-fee health care services at certain hospitals 
and other facilities for 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

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20857. To speak to a staff member, please 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). 
You also may visit http://www.hrsa.gov/hillburton/default.htm. 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 
at 1-800-375-5283.
    For information about the number of people in poverty or about the 
Census Bureau poverty thresholds, visit the Poverty section of the 
Census Bureau's Web site at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html or contact the Census Bureau's Demographic Call Center 
Staff at (301) 763-2422 or 1-866-758-1060 (toll-free).
    For general questions about the poverty guidelines themselves, 
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--or 
visit http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    Section 673(2) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 
1981 (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)) requires the Secretary of the Department of 
Health and Human Services to update, at least annually, the poverty 
guidelines, which shall be used as an eligibility criterion for the 
Community Services Block Grant program. The poverty guidelines also are 
used as an eligibility criterion by a number of other Federal programs. 
The poverty guidelines issued here are a simplified version of the 
poverty thresholds that the Census Bureau uses to prepare its estimates 
of the number of individuals and families in poverty.
    As required by law, this update is accomplished by increasing the 
latest published Census Bureau poverty thresholds by the relevant 
percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers 
(CPI-U). The guidelines in this 2009 notice reflect the 3.8 percent 
price increase between calendar years 2007 and 2008. After this 
inflation adjustment, the guidelines are rounded and adjusted to 
standardize the differences between family sizes. The same calculation 
procedure was used this year as in previous years. (Note that these 
2009 guidelines are roughly equal to the poverty thresholds for 
calendar year 2008 which the Census Bureau expects to publish in final 
form in August 2009.) The guideline figures shown represent annual 
income.

2009 Poverty Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous States and the District of
                                Columbia
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                                                               Poverty
                     Persons in family                        guideline
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1..........................................................      $10,830
2..........................................................       14,570
3..........................................................       18,310
4..........................................................       22,050
5..........................................................       25,790
6..........................................................       29,530
7..........................................................       33,270
8..........................................................       37,010
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For families with more than 8 persons, add $3,740 for each additional
  person.


                   2009 Poverty Guidelines for Alaska
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                                                               Poverty
                     Persons in family                        guideline
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1..........................................................      $13,530
2..........................................................       18,210
3..........................................................       22,890
4..........................................................       27,570
5..........................................................       32,250
6..........................................................       36,930
7..........................................................       41,610
8..........................................................       46,290
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For families with more than 8 persons, add $4,680 for each additional
  person.


                   2009 Poverty Guidelines for Hawaii
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                                                               Poverty
                     Persons in family                        guideline
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1..........................................................      $12,460
2..........................................................       16,760
3..........................................................       21,060
4..........................................................       25,360
5..........................................................       29,660
6..........................................................       33,960
7..........................................................       38,260
8..........................................................       42,560
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For families with more than 8 persons, add $4,300 for each additional
  person.

    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 or other outlying 
jurisdictions. In cases in which a Federal program using the poverty 
guidelines serves any of those jurisdictions, the Federal office that 
administers the program is generally responsible for deciding whether 
to use the contiguous-states-and-DC guidelines for those jurisdictions 
or to follow some other procedure.
    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).''
    Some programs use a percentage multiple of the guidelines (for 
example, 125 percent or 185 percent of the guidelines), as noted in 
relevant authorizing legislation or program regulations. 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.
    The poverty guidelines do not make a distinction between farm and 
non-farm families, or between aged and non-aged units. (Only the Census 
Bureau poverty thresholds have separate figures for aged and non-aged 
one-person and two-person units.)
    Note that this notice does not provide definitions of such terms as 
``income'' or ``family.'' This is because there is considerable 
variation in how different programs that use the guidelines define 
these terms, traceable to the different laws and regulations that 
govern the various programs. Therefore, questions about how a 
particular program applies the poverty guidelines (for example, Is 
income before or after taxes? Should a particular type of income be 
counted? Should a particular person be counted in the family or 
household unit?) should be directed to the organization that 
administers the program; that organization has the responsibility for 
making decisions about definitions of such terms as ``income'' or 
``family'' (to the extent that the definition is not already contained 
in legislation or regulations).


[[Page 4201]]


    Dated: January 16, 2009.
Michael O. Leavitt,
Secretary of Health and Human Services.
 [FR Doc. E9-1510 Filed 1-22-09; 8:45 am]
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