Poverty Guidelines 2010

By: Karsun

Break Studios Contributing Writer

If you need information for your taxes or just want to know if you're in the poverty level then you may want to research the poverty guidelines 2010 listing. These poverty guidelines 2010 listings are especially helpful during tax time or even if you are just curious where your income stands as opposed to the rest of the country. Here is some information on the poverty guidelines 2010 listings.

  1. Versions. There are two different poverty guidelines 2010 listings. These include the poverty guidelines based on thresholds and levels. What this means is that the poverty thresholds are the version of the federal poverty measure that was originally used. These poverty guidelines 2010 listings will be different when the Census Bureau takes another census since they are updated each time. The poverty guidelines are created by the Department of Health and Human Resources, and their information comes from those types of sources instead of a federal census.
  2. Programs. Many programs utilize the poverty guidelines 2010 listing for that year. In other years they will use the poverty guidelines for the appropriate year. These programs include, but are not limited to: Head Start, Medicaid, Family Planning Services, Job Corps, Medicare, the AIDS Drug Assistance Program and close to 50 other different programs that may affect your own family.
  3. Guidelines. The poverty guidelines 2010 listing covers the contiguous 48 states. Alaska and Hawaii have different standards; typically higher levels of income are considered poverty levels. For instance, a family of two living in Ohio would be considered at the poverty level if they make under $14,710 but if they live in Alaska, it's $18,380 and in Hawaii, it is $16,930. This is due in part to the state income average in those two states being higher.

This guide about the poverty guidelines 2010 listings is just a helpful bit of information about this guideline by the United States Government. You can check your own level on the government's site and find out if you qualify in your own state.

Posted on: May. 13, 2011