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NEU Senior Regional Support Officer
What does it really mean to be in poverty?
CHARLOTTE HUGHES describes the isolating and immiserating experience of the poverty trap

WHAT is poverty, and does it define us? As an anti-austerity campaigner, I often get asked this question. People ask me if I can define it. In reality it’s very difficult to define.

There are three definitions of poverty in common usage, those being absolute poverty, relative poverty and social exclusion.

Absolute poverty is defined as having the lack of sufficient resources with which to meet basic needs. Relative poverty defines income or resources in relation to the average income. But how does poverty define us?

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