WE ARE hearing more and more about poverty in Britain and we are told that hundreds of thousands of people are living below the poverty level.

Can anyone give me a definition of poverty in this country today? We are told on countless occasions that nobody should live in poverty as all the necessary benefits are in place.

Seebohm Rowntree said in his report in 1936 that you were living in poverty if you could not afford a newspaper, beer, tobacco, books or presents as these were deemed as non-necessities. Do these findings still apply? If not, can someone please write and tell me the criteria that puts people in poverty today?

TJ Ryder, Priory Gardens, North Lane, Dringhouses, York.