Ok I guess it does depend where you live etc. And how much your mortgage / housing costs are doesn't it?
But I really don't see how anyone can call an income of say the higher end of under 17k to be living in poverty.... My dh earns 14k and with tax creditsn child benefit etc we manage fine. We certainly don't struggle to eat or heat the house.. Dd has new shoes for school (one of the things cited as an indication of poverty was lack of new shoes) and we even have enough for a very small break away....
Am I being unreasonable? I appreciate tax credits do make a difference but even without these we could manage.