Poverty or not?

Example : couple who were both earning a reasonable wage by putting in many extra hours. Short term contract that came with accomodation that has now ended.
Not a penny in savings between them and now homeless and desperately waiting for their 1st benifit payment whilst looking for work.
These are real people I know of. I'd say they were in poverty and believe me they have never had a lavish life style. Fortunately there are no chidren involved

Benefits used to be assessed according to need.
So much for an adult
So much for a couple
So much per child
So much if someone was diabled
Etc.
Now that there is a cap on benefits, a family with several children will not have what was previously deemed to be necessary in order to bring up that number of children.
As Luckygirl says, it is the children that suffer.

I agree Luckygirl

There is poverty. I do not care if some of it might be self-inflicted (back to the deserving and undeserving poor ) - it is the children who suffer where family finances are tight, whatever the reason.