Strange Reticence

Hundreds of thousands of people are being forced into poverty by the government’s tax grabs and welfare cuts, we are being told. But no one ever quotes the numbers that constitute poverty, either as a weekly or annual income.
    I wonder what the reason for that is. Could it be that a lot of the ‘poverty’ is relative, and for every person in dire straits, there are thousands unable to afford holidays abroad and the like?