Most Active Stories Mon November 7, 2011 New Measure Shows
Higher Poverty Rate In U.S. The government released a new
experimental poverty measure Monday that found that the poverty
rate was 16 percent last year — slightly higher than previously
thought. The new measure won't replace the official one, but it
is an effort to get a more accurate picture of who is and isn't
poor. The official poverty measure has long been seen as
inadequate. It doesn't include government benefits that many
poor people receive, such as food stamps. It doesn't look at
expenses such as health care or taxes. And it doesn't account
for regional differences in the cost of living, which is why
people like Sandra Killett of New York City might feel poor —
even though the government says she isn't. "I make $29,000 [a
year], but how much do I bring home?" she says. Killett is a
divorced mother of two, in a very expensive city. NPR first
spoke to her two years ago about the way the government measures
poverty. At the time, she was strugglin