ASSEMBLY AGING AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION No. 131
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: SEPTEMBER 19, 2024
The Assembly Aging and Human Services Committee reports
favorably Assembly Resolution No. 131.
This resolution urges the federal government to raise the federal
poverty line for public assistance programs. The current federal
poverty line was developed in the 1960s and was based on a
household’s ability to afford basic foodstuffs alone; it did not account
for other living expenses such as housing, transportation, child care,
and health care, which have all risen exponentially in price over the
past sixty years. The federal government has not changed the original
calculation for the poverty line since its inception, aside from adjusting
for inflation. Consequently, nearly 53 million households cannot
afford basic necessities such as food, housing, and health care, but
only 37.9 million are officially recorded as living in poverty, as of
2022.
The poverty threshold is used to determine eligibility for public
assistance programs. As a result, the individuals and households who
do not earn enough money to support their basic needs but do not meet
the stringent limits of the current federal poverty line are without
access to public assistance. Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and
the rampant rate of inflation have only worsened the cost-of-living
crisis, increasing the financial burden on many poor Americans who
cannot access social welfare. In addition, recent policies to raise the
minimum wage across the country have had unintended consequences
for low-wage earners who have lost access to public assistance in
exchange for a marginal, and often insufficient, increase in pay,
resulting in a benefits cliff. By raising the federal poverty line, the
federal government can more accurately report the number of
impoverished Americans and, therefore, expand access to public
assistance programs for the individuals and households who need it.