NATION : Poverty Population Shifts Rapidly
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WASHINGTON — The Census Bureau, in a major experimental study released today, found large shifts in the poverty population over short periods of time, with as many as 25% of those who are poor one year no longer in poverty the next.
The study, conducted in 1984-85, shows considerable movement of people into as well as out of poverty. For example, one in five people with a poverty-level income in 1985 had not been poor in 1984.
The new study is expected to be closely studied by government officials and private researchers involved in welfare reform and social policy issues, and it provides some of the first official confirmation of some researchers’ contention that many people experience poverty in spells or short episodes.
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