1. Poverty Janava M. Benton

2. overview The official poverty data overstates the poverty problem More accurate measures show that we are closer to eliminating poverty than what is acknowledged

3. Scope of the problem Poor person- one who lives in a family with income below the poverty threshold Poverty threshold- annual cost of a nutritionally adequate diet multiplied by three Gross money income- all earnings including interest dividends, cash transfers, alimony child support payments, social security, unemployment and TANF Poverty rate- the number of poor people divided by the U.S. population

4. Official poverty rate

5. Anti- poverty effectiveness After receiving Social Security benefits only 11.9% of 47.65 of the elderly remained poor. Pre transfer poverty rate- estimate of what the poverty rate would be without government transfers Government transfers reduce poverty average poverty rate by 7.6 percent

6. Means tested Transfers Transfers that decrease as a recipient income increases (food stamps, TANF, and EITC) Basic benefit- benefit paid by MTT when gross income is zero Break- even gross income (BEGI) the gross income at which benefits become zero in a MTT program B=BB-BRR(GI-D) B= benefit GI=Gross Income BRR= benefit reduction rate D= deduction Target efficiency- degree to which transfer program benefits are confined to the poor

7. unemployment Since the birth of TANF 25% of single mothers are working. 20% of mothers who leave the TANF program returns within 2 years because of the cost of childcare and loss of Medicaid benefits

8. Minimum Wage The current minimum wage is $5.15 Full time work at this wage is cannot eliminate poverty Economist argue that an increase in minimum wage raises the unemployment level Wage Subsidy are more effectively targeted at the poor

9. Food for thought What can we do to eliminate poverty?