The Census Bureau released poverty figures for 2022 today:
The official poverty rate is based solely on family income. It declined continuously during the 2014-19 economic expansion, and since then has been about flat. The current official poverty rate is 11.5%, slightly down from last year.
The Supplemental Poverty Rate is a better measure that accounts for ordinary market income plus government payments. Those come in the form of taxes (negative income) and safety net benefits (positive income). During the pandemic, government benefits were high and this caused the SPM to go down. Then the government bennies ended abruptly in 2022 and the SPM went back up to its old level from before the pandemic. This represents an increase of 60% from last year. Child poverty was up 140% from last year.
The official poverty rate is now 10% above its level before the pandemic. The SPM is 6% higher.