Poor Measures

A study chronicles poverty's rise

Practically since Inauguration Day, the Reagan Administration has grumbled that the Government's statistical methods overstate the nation's population of poor people. The reason: the figures take into account only cash income and ignore the value of noncash benefits such as food stamps, free or discounted school lunches, public housing and subsidized medical care. But a new Census Bureau study released last week measured poverty both ways from 1979 to 1982 and found a sharp increase under either method.

A family of four was considered poor in 1979 if it had a cash income of $7,386 or less; by 1982 inflation had pushed the poverty line to $9,862. Counting cash income only, there were 26.1 million poor people in 1979 and 34.4 million in 1982, a rise of 31.8%. Adding in noncash benefits reduced those figures to 15.1 million in 1979 and 22.9 million in 1982. Thus, even according to this measure, poverty rose 51.6% during the period.

Lingering double-digit inflation and high unemployment, not budget or benefit cuts, were largely to blame, asserted census officials. Nonetheless, on Capitol Hill, the study prompted House Democrats to introduce a bill that would raise the federal contribution to Medicaid, Aid to Families with Dependent Children and other major welfare programs by $ 10.5 billion a year. qed