The US has 8 million more poor people since May due to the pandemic

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According to a study by the University. from Columbia released on Thursday, Financial aid schemes for American families have not been enough to prevent 8 million people from falling below the poverty line in the United States since May, especially among black and Hispanic minorities. The percentage of people living in poverty which before the pandemic was 15%, rose to 14.3% in May, but rose to 16.7% in September according to calculations by the Center for Poverty and Social Policies of the New York university. These figures allow us to estimate that the number of Americans living in poverty has risen from 47 million in May to 55 million in September.

The increases in poverty rates have been especially acute for blacks and Hispanics, as well as for children. The report which shows how the rapid decline in poverty levels in March when aid for the pandemic has been gradually disappearing. The researchers consider that economic stimulus measures for families such as the sending of aid checks and supplements in unemployment benefits reduced part of the increase in poverty in April and May but has not been able to successfully prevent the increase in deep poverty defined as a monthly income of less than half the threshold determined for a situation of poverty.

In May, unemployment benefits and checks approved by Congress saved 18 million people from falling into poverty, but in September that number was just 4 million, because that injection of money had run out. Hispanics have been the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States with a poverty rate of 25.8% in September, up from 23.7% before the pandemic. At the beginning of the year 23.8% of African Americans lived below the poverty line, and that percentage rose to 25.2% in September. In the case of whites, the increase is less pronounced, with a rate that has gone from 11.2% to 12%.

A similar study by the University of Notre Dame but using a different estimation model finds that the number of people living in poverty in the United States has grown by six million in the last three months. Contrary to the Columbia model, which shows an improvement in the poverty rate since the August peak of 17.3%, the Notre Dame model considers that the poverty ratio fell between April and June, but has not stopped increasing since then. stand at 11.1%.