the poor get poorer

A single person in the UK needs a gross income of at least £14,400 in 2010 to live to an acceptable standard. And a couple with two children need £29,200 for a minimum acceptable standard of living, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said.

"This research shows what ordinary members of the public think is needed - not just to survive but to take part in society," said Julia Unwin, chief executive of the JRF. The essentials required for a minimum standard of living have not been reduced in people's thinking, despite the level of economic uncertainty.For example, a week's holiday a year in the UK was still considered necessary to participate at an acceptable level in society. A computer and home internet connection is considered as essential for all working age households.

"Big rises in the prices of things like food and council tax means that they are nearly £20 a week short of what they need, and must think of what essentials they will go without." said one of the report's authors, Donald Hirsch, of Loughborough University.

In the last 10 years, inflation had risen by 23%, but key essentials cost 38% more.This included food prices (up 37%), bus fares (up 59%), and council tax (up 67%).

Poverty and worry about the future are built in to capitalism as far as the working class are concerned. Poverty is the direct and necessary result of the way the capitalist system works, and nothing can be done to end poverty, so long as the capitalist system remains.