Poverty is a social problem and it has been considered as a feature of inequality in society. This view is shared by Machperson & Silburn (1998, 1), as they consider poverty as a cause of “political and morale challenges to all societies at all times”.

Roll (1992, 7) defined poverty as a “shortage of something which is morally unacceptable and calls for action”. Or in a more official way, poverty can be defined as “the number of people with incomes below an arbitrary percentage of the average” Gordon et al (2000, 8).

There are two types of poverty depending on the way that it is measured, those types are: relative and absolute poverty. Absolute poverty refers to the minimum physical needs that are associated with physical survival, taking account of food, clothing, and shelter (Roll, 1992, 14).

On the other hand, relative poverty is usually related to social needs and as is a feature of income inequality and can be described as being a comparison to something else (Roll, 1992, 15). In other words it could be the inability to have stuff that most people in society think it is essential. To illustrate this and to understand public opinion on the subject of necessities, a survey carried out by 1500 people in 1999 produced the following results: over 90% of the population in each case perceive ‘beds and bedding for everyone’, ‘heating’, ‘damp-free home’, ‘visiting friends or family’ and ‘medicine prescribed by doctor’ as items which adults should have in Britain. By contrast, less than 10 per cent sees mobile phones and internet access as necessary’ Gordon et al (2000, 18).However, nowadays, internet access and mobile phones are considered as necessities to most people in society, so those who cannot afford them are counted in relative poverty.

There are many ways to measure poverty and they could vary from country to another. The measurement of poverty aims to help develop new policies to reduce the extent of poverty, and enables politicians to determine how many people live in poverty and what the social characteristics associated with them are, such as gender and age (MacPherson & Silburn, 1998, 8). Each measure of poverty has advantages and disadvantages, and has different influence on policy. For example, “income thresholds approach” defines poverty as being under a specific threshold level in terms of households average income or benefit levels. In the UK, it is “the most common measure of poverty”, and a household is said to be in poverty if its income, after taxes, is less than 60% of the UK median for that year” (Aldridge et al, 2013).