NOTE: The poverty guidelines are issued annually by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). They are developed by smoothing the official poverty thresholds for different size families. For historical reasons, the guidelines are higher than the thresholds for Alaska (by 25%) and Hawaii (by 15%). A few programs use the official thresholds rather than the guidelines.

^a Programs are listed in decreasing order of fiscal 1992 expenditures.

^b Expenditures include federal, state, and local outlays for benefits and administrative costs.

^c These programs also permit eligibility on the basis of 70 percent of the Department of Labor lower living standard income level for specific areas when that level is higher than the poverty guidelines.

^d This program also permits eligibility on the basis of 60 percent of state median income.

^e This program links eligibility to 75 percent of state median income for families of the same size.

^f This program includes a provision to forgive loans to needy students who fail to complete studies, in which need is defined as a percentage of the federal poverty guidelines.

^g This program also permits eligibility on the basis of a percentage of the local area median income defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

^h This program accords eligibility to people with incomes below 195 percent of the Department of Labor lower living standard income level.