Britons 'need £13k' to earn a decent standard of living

The "minimum income" is enough to cover needs like food and warmth, as well as the occasional film ticket and simple meal out, according to a panel questioned for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

The panellists, from a range of households and on varying incomes, were helped by experts to make sure the budget provided an adequate diet and enough warmth to remain healthy.

The study found that a single person without children needed to spend 158 a week, while a couple with two children needed 370 a week, excluding rent or mortgage.

To afford this budget on top of rent on a modest council home, a single person would need to earn 13,400 a year before tax and the couple with two children 26,800.

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 their income up to just above the minimum standard, the report said.

Malcolm Chisholm, Labour MSP for Edinburgh North & Leith, said tackling poverty was the biggest challenge facing society.

"We should recognise progress has been made, but there is a lot more to do," he said.

Tory MSP Margaret Mitchell said it was reasonable to include a simple meal out as part of an acceptable standard of living.

But she added: "If you follow old-fashioned general housekeeping, buy your butchermeat and make a pot of soup, you can live relatively cheaply."

Julia Unwin, director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: "This research is designed to encourage debate and to start building a public consensus about what level of income no-one should have to live below.

"Of course, everyone has their own views about what items in a family budget are essential. But this is the best effort to date to enable ordinary people to discuss and agree what all households should be able to afford."

And co-author Jonathan Bradshaw, professor of social policy at the University of York, said: "Based on these public assessments, almost everyone defined as living below the official poverty line falls short of what people judge to be adequate for their fellow citizens – sometimes by quite a long way."

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "This Government is committed to a fairer, more inclusive society, providing opportunity for all.

"We have lifted 600,000 children and nearly a million pensioners out of poverty."