Consumer Price Index

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced the 2024 federal poverty guidelines, also loosely referred to as federal poverty levels or lines (FPLs). The poverty guidelines are a simplified version of the federal poverty thresholds used for administrative purposes — for instance, determining financial eligibility for certain federal programs. They are issued each year in the Federal Register by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The January 2024 poverty guidelines are calculated by taking the 2022 Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds and adjusting them for price changes between 2022 and 2023 using the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U). The poverty thresholds used by the Census Bureau...