Family of four needs $50,000

from the Columbus Dispatch

Another story on the federal poverty guidelines as it relates to Ohio. This is related to what New York Mayor Micheal Bloomberg has been saying about the guidelines. - Kale

New study finds federal poverty levels unrealistically low

By Catherine Candisky

A single mother of a preschooler living in Franklin County needs to earn $34,260 a year to pay for housing, child care, food and other necessities.

A married couple with two children -- one in preschool and one of school age -- needs an annual income of $49,818 to make it in Franklin County, more than twice the federal poverty level.

A report released this morning shows what it costs in each of Ohio’s 88 counties to pay for basic needs without government or private assistance. The analysis provides figures for 70 different family types, including childless adults, single parents and couples with children.

The Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies commissioned the report and hopes it will help state policy makers consider the real cost of self-sufficiency when they set economic development incentives and guidelines for job training and assistance programs.

Advocates for the poor also are pushing for a revision of federal poverty guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that they argue is outdated and simply not high enough.

“It costs a lot more to be poor than it used to,” said Philip E. Cole, executive director of the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies.

Authored by Diane M. Pearce, director of the Center for Women’s Welfare at the University of Washington, the report determined self-sufficiency by costing out housing, food, health care, transportation, child care and taxes, assuming all adults, regardless of household composition, are working full-time.

Link to full article. May expire in future.