This is not to comment on the experience of poverty or the rights and wrongs of who gets what, just to show how the system works.

So here are some curiosities about poverty. It might improve during the recession, not because the poor get richer, and nor because the poor do, but because those who are on benefits could stay where they are but the median might fall.

Romanian pensioners can have much less money than UK pensioners but fewer of them be described as poor. That's because they are closer to the median person in their country, not because they have more money. In fact, they are simply bunched together at what others would consider the bottom.<<

The interactive graphic couldn't clip,you have to visit the source.Very interesting.