By Andy Brack | A major study now underway is expected to show how hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians who live above the government-defined federal poverty level are struggling to make ends meet.
The study, funded by the United Way Association of South Carolina and affiliated groups, will showcase a new “self-sufficiency standard” for the Palmetto State. Advocates of the standard say it’s much better than federal poverty guidelines to gauge the real financial stability of families. In South Carolina, 837,000 residents lived at or below the federal poverty level in 2013, according to Census data.
“The research will be conducted by the University of Washington and will produce a measurement that would establish the minimum income [that] working families need to meet their basic necessities,” said Anita Garrett, who is coordinating the project for the state United Way. “Local United Way agencies, along with an array of diverse stakeholders, are excited about what this will mean for South Carolina as we all work to combat poverty and address income instability.”
Results in other states, 37 of which have a self-sufficiency standard of data, show that thousands of more families struggle than those who fall below the federal poverty level, which is a formula essentially based on the cost of food. The new standard, however, will factor in the burden of other costs — transportation, health care, affordable housing, child care and taxes — to give a more realistic picture of the income families need to sustain themselves.
In Mississippi, for example, federal poverty data from 2007 identifies 18 percent of households — some 131,000 families — as living below the federal poverty level. But the updated self-sufficiency standard for Mississippi reflects that 32 percent of households — another 105,628 families — struggle to make ends meet.
The story is similar in Georgia, according to a 2008 report on the self-sufficiency standard. It showed that a single adult with two children would earn $13,624 a year in a minimum-wage job ($6.55 per hour in 2008), but would really need to earn $14.49 per hour ($30,611) to be self-sufficient and not struggle. In 2008 in Georgia, the federal poverty level for a family of three was $17,600.
To date, all states in the South, except South Carolina and Arkansas, have done a study to determine self-sufficiency standards. If the new South Carolina study shows results similar to Mississippi — with about a third of people struggling — the real number of people struggling in the Palmetto State may be 1.4 million.
New standard will have policy implications
Garrett said the federal poverty level, designed more than four decades ago, was outdated and inadequate. The new standard will “measure income inadequacy using the most up-to-date methodology and data available.”
In essence, the new standard will offer what it really means to live at a basic level in South Carolina without struggling. It should have a major impact to bring the debate on poverty in South Carolina into the 21st Century, proponents say.
“This tool has been used by government entities, advocates, philanthropic institutions and service providers in more than 37 states to assess and enhance policies to evaluate program improvement, to establish funding priorities and to develop public education tools,” Garrett said.
Charleston lawyer Charles Patrick, a recent chairman of the Trident United Way and current chair of its policy committee, said the new standard would help the state.
“If we are going to advocate for public policy initiatives, such as a state earned income tax credit, that will allow for working families to become self sufficient, we need to know how much income it really takes for a family to meet its basic needs,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we have previously been forced to rely on the outdated and unrealistic federal poverty standard, which assumes that a family of four, no matter the composition of that family (two adults and two teenagers versus a single mother and three small children) can live on the same amount of money in any area of the country (downtown Charleston versus a rural county in Utah).”
Patrick said it just makes sense to have better information.
“In order to determine how to lift families out of poverty, we need to know how much money it will really take to do so. The self-sufficiency standard tells us what it actually takes whereas the federal poverty level deceives us into believing that well intentioned efforts are sufficient when they are, in fact, woefully inadequate. In order for us to lift families out of poverty, it only makes sense to know what it will take to do that.”
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!