UCLA study finds million-plus elderly Californians in poverty

A new study from UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research is the latest example of how researchers are modifying the official poverty rate  to include more data on both the income and cost-of-living sides of the equation in order to develop more accurate measures of how people are faring.  While national poverty guidelines say that for a single elderly adult living alone, the poverty line is $10,890 a year, UCLA’s “elder index” puts it at $23,364 in California.  By UCLA’s alternative calculation, California has the nation’s highest poverty rate, 23.4 percent.