Federal Poverty Scale
An annually updated, machine-readable JSON file of U.S. Federal Poverty Guidelines with a Python API and REST endpoints: the shared reference data that every legal aid intake system needs for income eligibility screening.
Description
Organization: Suffolk LIT Lab (Suffolk University Law School)
Type: Reference Dataset + Utility Library
License: MIT
Link: https://github.com/SuffolkLITLab/docassemble-PovertyScale
Latest Release: v2026.0.0 (January 16, 2026)
What It Is
A JSON file containing the current U.S. Federal Poverty Guidelines, packaged as a Python library with convenience functions and a REST API. Updated approximately annually when HHS publishes new figures in the Federal Register (usually a month or so into the new year).
The JSON file maps household sizes to annual income thresholds. The Python functions accept household size, monthly income, and an optional multiplier (for organizations that use 125%, 150%, or 200% of FPL as their eligibility threshold) and return either the income limit or a boolean eligibility determination. The REST API provides the same functionality over HTTP.
Why It Matters
Income eligibility screening is the single most common gate in legal aid intake. Every intake system, voice bot, chatbot, and guided interview that checks eligibility needs the same data: the current Federal Poverty Guidelines, by household size, with multiplier support. Right now, most organizations either hardcode these numbers (and forget to update them), reference the HHS website manually, or depend on Code for America's fplapi (which requires a dedicated server and hasn't been updated in years).
This package solves that. One maintained source of truth, usable three ways: as a raw JSON file you can drop into any system, as a Python import for Docassemble interviews and other Python applications, or as a REST API endpoint on your own server.
It's already being used in production. The VLAS Voice Intake project references this JSON file directly for its income eligibility checks. Any AI intake system that screens on income (which is nearly all of them) could use the same source.
How to Use It
Just the data: Download federal_poverty_scale.json directly from the repo and reference it in whatever system you're building.
Python: Install via pip (docassemble.PovertyScale). Call poverty_scale_income_qualifies(total_monthly_income, household_size, multiplier) for a boolean, or poverty_scale_get_income_limit(household_size, multiplier) for the threshold amount. Income is expected monthly.
REST API: Install on a Docassemble server. Endpoints include /poverty_guidelines (full table), /poverty_guidelines/household_size/<size> (per-household lookup with optional state and multiplier parameters), and /poverty_guidelines/qualifies/household_size/<size>?income=<amount> (eligibility determination).
State-specific adjustments for Alaska and Hawaii are supported via the state parameter.
Who Built It and Why
Suffolk LIT Lab was already maintaining and consuming this data across multiple applications. They packaged it so the broader field could share one source of truth rather than each organization maintaining its own copy. The repo accepts pull requests with updated figures when new guidelines are published.