Digital workhouse

How we define and measure poverty matters for universities committed to access for disadvantaged students.

This week, the Department for Work and Pensions announced a pilot plan to redefine the meaning of poverty and hit back at a United Nations study declaring UK policy towards its poorest citizens to be mean-spirited and callous.

There’s an international consensus on the definition of poverty in rich countries. It’s called “relative poverty”, and it’s worked out by counting all those whose incomes are less than 60 per cent of the median.