Nearly eight million Americans “have been living in poverty since May,” according to a Columbia University study published by the New York Times.
The researchers found that the monthly poverty rate for September was higher than rates in April or May, and also exceeded pre-crisis levels. The revelation comes as it seems unlikely that an agreement on new stimulus aid will be reached before the November elections.
“The monthly poverty rate has risen from 15 percent to 16.7 percent from February to September 2020, even after taking into account CARES Act income transfers,” wrote researchers at Columbia University.
“The increase in monthly poverty rates is particularly noticeable among African-American and Latin American individuals, as well as among children,” they added.
“In April and May, CARES succeeded in counteracting the potential increase in monthly poverty, but failed to prevent the rise of deep poverty, defined as a monthly income less than half the monthly poverty line.”
“Unemployment and unemployment benefit checks lifted more than 18 million people out of monthly poverty in April, but that number dropped to about four million in August and September after the $ 600-a-week unemployment benefit expired.”
“The act was unusually successful, but it is now gone, and many more people are poor,” Zahari Parolin, author of the Columbia Study, told the Times.
A special study by researchers from Notre Dame and the University of Chicago found that six million people have fallen into poverty in the last three months, writes “Times”.
“Significantly, the studies differ from last month: While the Columbia model showed improvement in September, Chicago and Notre Dame analysts found that poverty continued to rise,” the Times reported.
