[quote vivainsomnia]@EmmaOvary, you mean an organisation that has a direct interest in the matter? You consider all families whose income is less than average to be in poverty?
That's right, I don't believe their biased statistic at all. I remember that I met the criteria as being a family in poverty when I was a single mum of 2 under 5. I certainly was not so. Yes I had to be careful with money, yes I had to prioritise and didn't have much money for holidays nor to save regularly but I could feed my family healthily, keep us warm, buy them adequate clothing, pay for a few activities and days out, treat them reasonably for Xmas and birthdays and kit the house with essentials.
So no, I don't pay much attention to their statistics.[/quote]
The most widely recognised measurement of poverty in the UK are households with an income 60% lower than the average income.
The average UK salary is 31k I believe.
So a single adult household with income of below £18600 is about the poverty line.
Some people are surprised that poverty line sounds quite high, £18600 a year doesn't sound bad, it's more than minimum wage.
But it's not really a hard cut definition, more a guide.
So if £18600 is poverty line, a household of 1 adult, 1 child, on UC getting £11500 is well below the poverty line.
Person A on £18k a year is in poverty.
Person B on £11k a year is also in poverty.
But, this shouldn't be a race to the bottom. It should be about lifting everyone up so everyone is better off.
Declaring £15k a perfectly.livable wage because some people live on less, doesn't work. What we should be doing is getting those living on less, up to a better standard, then we'd all benefit.