Federal officials recently released the 2020 Federal Poverty Income Guidelines, better known as the “federal poverty level” (FPL). States and the federal government use the guidelines to determine who qualifies for programs that help kids and parents access health insurance, pay for food, and reduce the cost of childcare.

You can find the 2020 poverty levels on the Wisconsin Budget Project website. The updated tables show how the revised amounts affect eligibility for programs like BadgerCare, FoodShare, and Wisconsin Shares, which helps people afford child care. The tables also translate the annual income amounts into monthly and hourly income.  

The 2020 poverty level is just $12,760 per year for a "single childless adult" and $17,240 for a two-person family. For most family sizes, the new poverty levels are about 2 percent higher than the poverty levels used in 2019.

A Kids Forward blog post discusses the policy ramifications of the new guidelines. For example, in states that used the ACA to fully expand Medicaid, as Governor Evers recommended, a single parent with one child could earn $3.15 more per hour and still qualify for health insurance through BadgerCare. However, because Wisconsin chose to forgo expansion, that single parent must earn no more than $8.29 per hour in order to keep her health insurance (assuming a 40-hour work week).

We have also updated a Kids Forward infographic detailing how the 2020 poverty levels relate to BadgerCare eligibility for kids, parents, "childless adults," and pregnant women.