Census Bureau: Fewer Hawaii households are on welfare (Honolulu: 2014, living in)

[whtviper1]

More good news for Hawaii -

Census Bureau: Fewer Hawaii households are on welfare - Hawaii News - Honolulu Star-Advertiser

"Hawaii is among five states that saw declines in the number and percentage of households receiving public assistance between 2011 and 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau."

[winkosmosis]

First comment says: "This may be because that, before, we were doling it about ABOVE the federal requirements and then we pulled back TO the federal requirements."

Is that true? Looser requirements because of higher cost of living etc, and now matching other states?

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

First comment says: "This may be because that, before, we were doling it about ABOVE the federal requirements and then we pulled back TO the federal requirements."

Is that true? Looser requirements because of higher cost of living etc, and now matching other states?

No. The Feds set the poverty guidelines each year, which are used by the states to determine eligibility for public assistance. We're not "matching other states." The 48 contiguous states and DC have one table, Alaska has another, and Hawai'i has another. Alaska and Hawai'i tables have higher thresholds due to the higher cost of living in these two states.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/14poverty.cfm