How much money do we need to live?

A single person in Britain needs to earn at least £13,400 a year before tax for a minimum standard of living, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) says. A couple with two children need to spend £370 a week and a pensioner couple need £201 excluding housing and childcare costs, the charity says. Film tickets, a bottle of wine and a bird feeder were on the list of goods people need to participate in society. There is a graphic on the BBC News site showing the varying amounts for different groups broken down by category of expenditure. (BBC News)

According to The Guardian, the report said families without a working adult received about two-thirds of the minimum budget in state benefits. Single people without work received less than half of the minimum budget in benefits. The basic state pension gives a retired couple about three-quarters of the minimum income, but claiming the means-tested pension credit could top up their income to just above the minimum standard, the report said. The study found that almost everybody classified as being in poverty had an income too low to pay for an "adequate" standard of living as defined by the panellists. (The Guardian)