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AHS: Errors in IPOV

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The IPOV (poverty level income) variable in the income limits files on the HUD AHS web site have been calculated erroneously. The program which calculates IPOV had a hard-coded denominator in the part where we do the inflation adjustment. So when we updated the CPI array, it continued to divide by the 1967-based index value. We should have noticed that, of course. The problem definitely occurs in the 2001 file, and it may affect the 1997 and 1999 files as well.

Fortunately, poverty income does not depend on any special HUD numbers, and so it shouldn't be difficult to assign them yourself. You might want to look at HHS' web page at http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/poverty.shtml for the details.

We will, of course, be replacing the file on our web site as soon as we're sure we have it right this time.

The inflation adjustments for FMR and the income limits in those files (LMED, L50, L80) were not hard coded in this way. So those should be fine.

My apologies to everyone.

Dav Vandenbroucke
Economist
U.S. Dept. HUD
david_a._vandenbroucke@hud.gov
202-708-1060 ext. 5890