Walk a Mile In Their Shoes, an Exploration of Poverty

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Understanding the Three Degrees of Poverty. In looking at the socioeconomic term that we label as being “poverty”, we first must understand the definition of poverty.

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Relative Poverty

The first degree of poverty is “relative poverty”. What this means is that someone lacks the appropriate financial resources to be able to maintain a similar diet, activities, or amenities to those that are around them. You may have felt this sensation if you are a “lower-class” or “middle-class” individual, who is surrounded by those that are “upper-class”.

Moderate Poverty

The next degree of poverty is “moderate poverty”. Individuals and families that are living in “moderate poverty” can usual meet their basic needs, but they may struggle to do so. I’m sure most of us relate to this concept. If you are a “broke college student”, living on ramen noodles, you may be experiencing moderate poverty. While your needs are met, you may struggle to do so.

Extreme Poverty

Our final degree of poverty is “extreme poverty”. “Extreme poverty” is the poorest of the poorest of individuals. These individuals, families, or communities do not have enough financial resources in order to meet their basic needs, such as food, clothing, housing, etc. If you see a homeless person walking down the street, wearing worn and tattered clothing, this would be an example of extreme poverty.

Yet the question you may find yourself asking is, “how does these degrees affect me as a social worker”? I think that there are many different implications for the dimensions of poverty. For one, understanding that there are different degrees of poverty helps someone to understand that just because someone isn’t “flying a cardboard sign”, doesn’t mean that they aren’t impoverished. It helps us to understand that more people experience poverty than what is commonly believed and this can help us to be more empathetic and to be more understanding. The next idea to discuss is the idea of stigma and shame. Someone who is living paycheck to paycheck may not face as much societal shame or stigma as a homeless person, but they may be shaming or stigmatizing themselves just as much. Understanding the degrees of poverty helps us to better understand each person’s unique barriers and struggles.

How is poverty determined?

The United States uses poverty guidelines and poverty thresholds to determine poverty. Guidelines are calculated by taking the minimum cost of food for a person, then multiplying it by three to account for other expenses that an individual may incur. Now according to our textbook for, “the most recent year for which data is available, the poverty threshold for a family of four was $24,257”. In the government’s eyes, a family of four would not be in poverty if they made $24,258 as a family unit. Yet as I’m sure many of us can relate, it is hard for a single adult to live on that amount, let alone a family of four.

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By setting the guidelines this low, many implications arise. The first implication is that if an individual has income that exceeds that amount, then they are not impoverished. Because they are deemed to not be impoverished, the government does not have to offer them social assistance programs such as government-funded health insurance, food benefits, etc. Because of this, more people fall into society’s socioeconomic gap. They make too much money to get help, but they don’t make enough money to survive on.

I believe that the poverty guidelines system is very flawed. It doesn’t give an accurate measure of the expenses that individuals incur, especially when you consider the cost of living varies from area to area. The next factor to consider is that impoverished people are frequently transient, moving from place to place in an effort to meet their basic needs. Because of this, we are unable to obtain an accurate count of how many people are impoverished. The last thing that I will note is that because of how low the poverty threshold is, many people that experience either moderate or relative poverty, will not be classified as being impoverished. The flaws in this system causes there to be inaccurate data, which affects the ability for appropriate policy and legislation to be created. According to the textbook, 43.1 million people live in poverty, yet this is based on the poverty guidelines. If one were to factor in relative or moderate poverty, then the numbers would be much higher.

In understanding the impacts of the poverty guidelines, the next topic we will explore is “social mobility”. Social mobility refers to the ability of a person to move in the socioeconomic chain into a new income level or status level. Now, these changes can happen in different ways. Someone could move up the chain, down the chain, or the changes could be within a generation, or could be between generations. There are many different forms of social mobility.

Yet what can a social worker do to affect social mobility and overcome barriers? As a social worker, there are many interventions that are afforded to us, based on the level in which we practice.

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As a micro-level social worker, we would be working with people on an individual basis, where we can connect them with community resources, employment opportunities, welfare programs and help them learn how to cope with the hardships of poverty.

As a mezzo level social worker, we work with groups of people. This could be group facilitation, working with children in schools, or working with community agencies where we can help groups of people develop their skills that would assist them in overcoming their barriers.

Finally, there is the macro level. As a macro level social worker, we work on the systemic level. This can include working on policies and procedures, advocating for legislative change, developing community programs, and much more.

As you can see, no matter what level of social worker you are, there are many different interventions that you can take to help someone who is in a position of poverty. Yet even then, your interventions depend not only what type of social worker you are, but it is also dependent on what degree of poverty that someone is struggling with. For example, someone experiencing relative poverty may need more interventions regarding coping with the hardships of their poverty, whereas someone in extreme poverty may need more connection to social welfare programs.

Extreme Poverty interventions: connection to employment resources, connection to social welfare programs, connection to housing resources.

Moderate Poverty interventions: Connection to financial wellness resources such as budgeting courses, credit worthiness classes, connection to employment resources, connection to professional development resources.

Relative Poverty interventions: Coping with hardships of relative poverty, coping with societal or interpersonal shame and stigma surrounding poverty, connection to financial readiness resources.

How can social workers help to ensure that more accurate data is reported about impoverished individuals?

I think that social workers could help the data collection by performing assessments in order to determine the degree of poverty to which someone is experiencing. Further, social workers could help transient individuals participate in census bureau data collection, so that the census bureau can collect more data from transient individuals, thereby improving the quality of data provided.