Lifeline

The Lifeline program subsidizes phone and broadband plans for low-income households. On behalf of the Federal Communications Commission, Lifeline is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company, a nonprofit, through the Universal Service Fund.

Eligibility

The FCC provides at most one Lifeline benefit to households with income below 135% of the federal poverty guideline, as well as to households with members that participate in Medicaid, SSI, and SNAP (PolicyEngine supports these three), as well as other programs.

Benefit

Lifeline provides up to $9.25 per month.

Variable

Hide code cell source

 
from policyengine_us.tools.documentation import (
    variable_summary,
    variation_chart,
)

variable_summary("lifeline")
Value
Metadata
Name lifeline
Label Lifeline
Entity spm_unit
Definition period year
Has a formula True
Value type float
Unit currency-USD
Documentation Amount of Lifeline phone and broadband benefit
Reference [https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/54.403]
Quantity type flow
Defined for All entities

Values by income

Hide code cell source

 
variation_chart(
    "lifeline",
    additional_data=dict(
        spm_units=dict(
            spm_unit=dict(
                broadband_cost=40 * 12,
            )
        )
    ),
)