But surely it should be based on the basics of food on the table, warm dry roof over your head, clothes on your back.

And your health and happiness?

…and the quality of your life relative to others in the society you live…

When you can’t buy a shirt for your boy and have him wearing his sisters blouse then broadband is an indulgence

If they could be arsed to look you could probably find one for a few quid in a charity shop too…

There only disadvantages are their parents and how they waste what little they have. If you gave them more would it all go the kids or squandered elsewhere

Having a TV is pretty vital for your well-being when you’re poor…… alternative pastimes/pleasures are seriously restricted because of lack of money. Going to the cinema, theatre, barbecues, pub, cycling, visiting friends a long way away, holidays, restaurants, clubbing, all cost money. A TV provides a good value for money alternative……might as well buy the biggest one you can afford.

the mother whose daughters were saying they sometimes go without food; well their mother wore very long false nails that must have cost at least £20, that could have bought food instead.
the guy in leicester whose son had to wear his sisters shirts. well you can get a school shirt at asda for £2, instead of putting £2 in the tv for a few hours.
there are alternatives , i bet a lot of those kids problems were down to the parents choices, not the lack of actual income.

I have seen, though not recently, the poverty indicators mentioned above.hings like internet access are considered essentials as they are important in ensuring choice,contact with others, and I suppose you could use it as an educational tool.A dress set of clothes promotes self-worth etc. I wish I could find it,as it provides fairly compelling arguements for the things it lists, like a microwave and telly,as stated.IIRC a lot of the indicators are about ensuring social inclusion.

School shirts are 2 for £4 in asda. What that parent is doing can only be classed as negligence.

I was chatting with a CAP worker a few weeks ago. She said that very few CAP clients were in serious debt because of negligent spending. Many families face problems because of loss of income though separation, job loss, or illness. She helps people to sort out their finances until they get out of the debt/poverty trap. More helpful than judging from the sidelines…

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371160/

Kevin Lewis never had a chance. Growing up on a poverty-stricken London council estate, beaten and starved by his parents, bullied at school and abandoned by social services, his life was never his own. Even after he was put into care, he found himself out on the streets caught up in a criminal underworld that knew him as ‘The Kid’. Yet Kevin survived to make a better life for himself. This international bestseller published in 2003 is his heartbreaking and inspiring story.