European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 19, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wobbi5 poverty How Many americans Are really poor by Terry Kirkpatrick associated press thirteen years and hundreds of billions of Dol Lars after War was declared on a new administration is taking its own look at the what will it find at first an unimpressive record consid ering the High Hopes and huge sums of Money that launched the quest for a great despite a fourfold increase in Public spending on social welfare in the decade following president John sons Call to 26 million people Are still Down Only about 30 per cent from but from a deeper inspection by several  emerges a different it appears that the definition of poverty adopted by the government the definition by which 28 million Are considered poor Doest measure the fastest growing Type of govern ment that is inking assistance food hot lunch housing medical Job training and other no Cash benefits that dont show up when income is tallied to determine if a family is although the logic of doing so can be changing the poverty definition to account for inking benefits to 60 per the reduction in poverty since As John Korbel of the congressional budget office found his report this year was prompted by former Walter Mondale expression of a growing concern in Congress Over the Success of president Johnsons great society looking at the programs targeted primarily on the much of the recent rapid growth has been in the in kind Transfer rather than Cash Korbel while Cash assistance expenditures grew about inking Transfer payments to individuals increased from billion in fiscal year 1s6s to billion by fiscal year this growth is not reflected in official poverty statistics because inking benefits Are not counted As to count Korbel adjusted the numbers and found if there were no government welfare million people would be considered poor 20 per cent of the when social insurance such As social Secu Rity and unemployment Are figured the number of poor Falls to or 12 Pur adding Cash the number drops to Mil or 10 per these Are the poor under the governments Basic poverty definition used by the census May 1977 doily Magazine corbels figure is lower than the census bureaus count of 26 million since he adjusted the data to account for under reporting of counting inking benefits including medicaid and med the number of poor Falls to or about s per since 1965 the per cent of families in poverty has been reduced by roughly 60 per cent using this in con Trast to the More modest 30 per cent when the census income concept is Korbel an assessment of the War on rests on changing the definition of As Korbel reduces the number of other proposed changes in the poverty hires holds would raise the the census Bureau poverty based on Money income was designed in 1963 by Mollie or an economist in he social Security admin As a research ii was adopted am the official government yardstick la Many Agen cies use it to administer although Tome have shifted to modifications or totally different def the Urshansky definition sets up 124 poverty lines that vary with family sex of the family Leader and place of for a nonfarm family headed by a male was considered poor if its income last year fell below about Levels Are adjusted each year As consumer prices a Survey of new York City welfare families by the Rand found that inking benefits provide 37 per cent of the total income of families in the Aid for families with dependent children the Ardc and related inking income Transfer pro Grams have achieved one of their main objectives providing most welfare families with sufficient goods and services to move them from poverty level in comes into a level that is by conventional Stan for meeting minimal household requirements for health and work related the study there Are problems with the congressional budget of inc and hand for they show that the poor Haven found the Means to support themselves at an adequate level and Mast still loan on the what value should be assigned to inking Bene if a family gets Worth of medical care for a sick its income would appear to be at least much better than its actual of All inking Bene medical care causes the most difficulty in assigning an income there is evidence that the poverty thresholds Are too computed them by taking the Cost of the agriculture departments Low Cost food plan and multiplying by a 193s Survey showed that families typically spend one third of their income for Survey since then suggest that the multiplier should be or nutritional standards have using a simplified poverty line does result in a higher number of Orshansky she contends that if inking benefits for the poor arc counted As so should no Cash income of the non such As tax Breaks for Home buyers and employer Jaid medical doing this probably would raise the and thus the poverty threshold and the number of sorting All of this out is up to where the going is Orshansky has updated and revised her poverty and others have suggested new measure but none has been it lakes a Long Lime to design a new says Sar an economics professor at George washing ton University and close observer of the poverty it takes a Long time for an Agency to change its 1 imagine there will be a change in the next few but obviously its not a burning Issue if you have new that has political Imp Lica while the technicians May be talking about Bil Lions of dollars arc Riding on those if you change the some states or cities Are going to Benefit More than the stars and stripes Page 13