Which federal programs use the 2025 poverty guideline for a household of two to determine eligibility?
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Executive summary
The 2025 HHS poverty guidelines are the baseline numbers many federal means-tested programs use to set income eligibility, and for a household of two the 2025 guideline is $21,150 for the 48 contiguous states and D.C. [1]. Programs that directly reference the HHS poverty guidelines for eligibility include Medicaid and CHIP, SNAP/food stamps (as an example of program-level application), TANF, SSI (as a listed means-tested benefit), LIHEAP (which directs states to use percentages of the HHS guidelines), and benefit rules cited in immigration affidavit-of-support guidance; however, each program often applies its own percentage, rounding, unit definition, and look‑back rules [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. How the HHS 2025 guideline for a two-person household is defined and where it’s published
The HHS “poverty guidelines” for 2025 are the administrative numbers published by the Department of Health and Human Services and the contiguous‑states figure for a two‑person household is listed as $21,150 in HHS materials summarizing the 2025 guidelines [1], with the detailed tables and methodological notes available from ASPE’s 2025 guidelines PDF [2] and promoted via the ASPE poverty‑guidelines page announcing the 2025 data release [6].
2. Core federal programs that use the HHS guideline (direct mentions in federal materials)
Federal materials explicitly enumerate or link the HHS poverty guidelines to eligibility for core means‑tested programs: Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program are checked against the 2025 FPL numbers for eligibility determinations [5], and the USCIS affidavit‑of‑support guidance lists food stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and the State Child Health Insurance Program as examples of federal means‑tested benefits tied to those guidelines [3]. ASPE’s guidance also notes that individual programs—SNAP and Medicaid among them—decide specifics such as how to round multiples of the guideline and which incomes to count [2].
3. Programs that use percentages or related adjustments of the two‑person guideline
Many programs do not use the raw guideline but a percentage of it; for example, LIHEAP eligibility is expressed in the clearinghouse guidance as using percentages (e.g., 110% or 150% of HHS guidelines for different purposes and years) and the LIHEAP state profiles reflect mandatory application of those percentages in FFY 2025 [4], while the Lifeline program applies a 135%‑of‑FPL cutoff and explicitly presents tables based on the 2025 guidelines for household sizes (including two) [7]. The practical effect is that a household of two may face different numeric cutoffs across programs depending on whether a program uses 100%, 135%, 138%, 150%, 200% or another multiple of the $21,150 base [4] [7] [2].
4. Notable exclusions and quirks—what does not rely on the HHS guideline
HHS itself warns that the poverty guideline is not universal: some federal rules—like the Earned Income Tax Credit—do not use the HHS poverty guidelines to determine eligibility, and HealthCare.gov notes that Marketplace savings are calculated using income amounts from the prior year and related rules rather than simply the current HHS table [6] [5]. Moreover, ASPE and program offices emphasize that program definitions of household/eligibility unit and income counting can materially change whether a two‑person household is treated as a “household of two” for benefit calculations [2].
5. Bottom line: which programs to expect will use the 2025 two‑person guideline in practice
Expect Medicaid and CHIP eligibility checks, many state TANF programs, SSI references in federal guidance, food‑stamp/SNAP policy frameworks, LIHEAP allocations tied to percentage cutoffs, Lifeline income thresholds, and immigration affidavit‑of‑support calculations to be anchored to the 2025 HHS table that lists $21,150 for a household of two—while remembering that each program typically applies its own percentage, look‑back, rounding and definition rules that produce different numeric eligibility lines from the raw $21,150 baseline [3] [5] [4] [7] [2]. Where a program isn’t explicitly connected in the cited materials, reporting is limited to the sources provided and cannot confirm usage absent program‑level documentation.