The 2024 Poverty Guidelines, commonly referred to as the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), follow in the tables below. Note that these amounts change based on the number of individuals in the household and the state in which one resides.
Federal Poverty Levels are used by many assistance programs, including some states’ Medicaid programs, as a way to set financial eligibility criteria. Often programs limit participant’s income to 100% of the FPL, or some percentage of the FPL, such as $138% or 200%.
Importance of Poverty Guidelines / What These Numbers Mean
Many state programs that offer financial assistance to elderly or disabled individuals use the Federal Poverty Levels to calculate their annual or monthly income limits for program eligibility. As mentioned above, some states’ Medicaid programs also use these limits, or a percentage thereof, to determine eligibility for different constituent groups. (These groups can include the Aged, Blind or Disabled, Children Under 18, or Pregnant Women).
The Department of Health and Human Services publishes this information and updates it each January for the current year. The numbers are based on data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Note that there is little difference between the Federal Poverty Guidelines and the Federal Poverty Levels. Therefore, throughout this article, these terms are used interchangeably. However, these guidelines should not be confused with the Federal Benefit Rate (FBR) / Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Limit. Those numbers are published by the Social Security Office and are available here.
Did You Know?
The Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is a measurement of the minimum amount of annual income that is needed for individuals and families to pay for essentials, such as room and board, clothes, and transportation. The FPL takes into account the number of people in a household, their income, and the state in which they live. On the other hand, the Federal Benefit Rate, a monthly cash benefit, is the maximum payment that an aged, blind or disabled adult can be paid via Supplemental Security Income.
As a point of reference, at the time of this writing (January 2024), the annual FPL for a household of one is $15,060 ($1,255 / month). And the maximum annual SSI benefit amount for a single individual is $11,321.49 ($943 / month).
As with the FPL, many assistance programs use SSI figures to determine if an applicant is income eligible. While a percentage of the FPL is often used to determine income eligibility for categorically aged, blind and disabled Medicaid, a percentage of the FBR is often used to determine if one is income eligible for a Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Medicaid waiver or nursing home Medicaid.
