Where can I find official HHS publications or tables with the 2026 poverty guidelines?
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Executive summary
The official HHS source for the poverty guidelines is the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) “Poverty Guidelines” page and its linked PDF tables; ASPE publishes annual updates and computations (see the ASPE topic page and detailed 2024 tables) [1] [2]. The HHS annual update is also published in the Federal Register; the most recent formal notice referenced here is the January 17, 2025 Federal Register “Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines” [3].
1. Where HHS publishes the official tables — go to ASPE
The Department of Health and Human Services delegates publication of the poverty guidelines to ASPE; its poverty-guidelines hub hosts the current guidance and links to PDF tables for the contiguous U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii, as well as computation notes [1] [2] [4]. For official numbers, use ASPE’s pages and the linked “detailed-guidelines” PDF for the specific year you need [2].
2. Federal Register: the formal legal notice
HHS issues an annual update in the Federal Register that explains the CPI-U adjustment and formally announces the new guidelines; the Federal Register notice dated January 17, 2025 is the definitive administrative announcement for that year’s update [3]. Agencies and practitioners often cite that Federal Register notice when confirming the legal basis for the new figures [3].
3. How other federal agencies use and repost HHS figures
Several federal agencies and programs rely on HHS poverty guidelines and repost them for program-specific use. For example, USCIS publishes HHS poverty-guideline tables for immigration affidavit-of-support and fee-waiver purposes and directs users to HHS guidance (USCIS pages for I-864P and fee-waiver guidance) [5] [6]. HealthCare.gov also references HHS for poverty-level amounts and notes higher figures for Alaska and Hawaii [7].
4. Timing and "coverage year" confusion — read the fine print
Some consumer-facing sites and program rules use “coverage year” terminology that can make it seem like different years’ HHS numbers apply to benefits in later calendar years. For example, marketplace subsidy calculations for a given coverage year may use the prior year’s FPL numbers; secondary sources explain how 2025 FPL figures are used for 2026 coverage decisions [8]. Always check the program-specific guidance for which year’s HHS tables it instructs you to use [2] [8].
5. Where to find the 2026 poverty guidelines specifically
Available sources here do not explicitly present a standalone “2026 poverty guidelines” table published by HHS. ASPE maintains the central repository where a 2026 table would appear once posted and the Federal Register would carry the formal annual notice; the most recent Federal Register notice in the provided sources is the January 17, 2025 update [1] [3] [2]. If you need numbers currently in use for “coverage year 2026” or program calculations, consult the program’s instruction (for example, Marketplace or USCIS) because they may apply either the 2025 HHS figures or the next HHS update depending on the program [8] [5].
6. Practical next steps — where to look right now
- Check ASPE’s poverty-guidelines page first; that is the authoritative HHS landing page that links to the year-by-year PDFs and computation notes [1] [2] [4].
- Search the Federal Register for “Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines” to find the formal notice for the relevant year (the Jan. 17, 2025 notice is the latest in these sources) [3].
- If you need the figure for a specific program (Medicaid, Marketplace, USCIS forms), consult that agency’s webpage because they specify which year’s guidelines to use for eligibility or affidavit-of-support calculations [5] [6] [8].
7. Conflicting signals and limitations in the record
Secondary sources (consumer sites and state guidance digests) sometimes show “coverage year” tables or derived thresholds (for example, an affordability-exemption chart labeled for 2026 coverage), but those are downstream calculations and not a substitute for an HHS-published table; one example of a compiled “Coverage Year 2026” reference appears in a third-party PDF that cites ASPE as its source [9]. Rely on ASPE and the Federal Register for the official baseline numbers; program administrators may round or modify multiples of the guidelines when applying them to benefits [2].
8. Bottom line for your search
For official HHS poverty guidelines and any future 2026 table, start at ASPE’s poverty-guidelines page and the Federal Register notices that formalize the annual update; use agency-specific guidance (USCIS, Marketplace, state Medicaid) to determine which year’s HHS figures apply to a particular program or coverage year [1] [2] [3] [5].