The sheer blind denial and excuses on this thread are sickening, even in the face of first hand, second hand accounts of poverty.
My mum was, a couple of years ago, living in poverty and desperately trying to hide it from me and my siblings, self employed cleaner, scraping by as it was, whose LL gave her notice, but she had no deposit for another place, council told her as an adult with no dependents they had no obligation to help her, she was staring homelessness in the face.
Luckily me and my siblings could club together and sorted her a deposit for a new place, however the rent was a bit higher, so she was working harder, taking on as many jobs as she could, not eating enough as she was throwing so much money at rent, keeping a small old car going so she could work, and trying to heat a drafty old flat in winter. She developed pneumonia, was hospitalised, and therefore lost quite a bit of work, so she reduced how much heating she was using, washed in cold water, used bundles of tissue paper instead of fucking of sanitary towels, ate at my house or my siblings as much as possible, turning up at dinner time as she knew we would always offer her dinner, but never really telling us about any of it.
It's only when I asked her to babysit one evening she broke down and told me it all, as she didn't want my children coming to stay in an unheated flat, with an empty fridge and cupboards.
That is the reality, of daily, unending, grinding poverty. Luckily my mum has a support network, and is now in a much better place due to various interventions and assistance from me and my siblings. Now imagine being in that situation, with no one to turn to.