Jargon Buster - Material deprivation

What does it mean? The term refers to a family's inability to afford goods and activities that are deemed to be typical in a society at any given time. There are six categories: basic needs (running water, heating, health care), basic leisure activities (holidays, being able to have friends round for dinner), availability of consumer durables (phone, computer, television), housing conditions, financial stress and support from others.

The government has pledged to eradicate child poverty by 2020. One measure of success will be getting the number of children living in a combination of material deprivation and low income down to less than five per cent. Other measures include reducing relative low income (defined as households earning less than 60 per cent of the national average income) to less then 10 per cent, reducing absolute low income (households with an income below an absolute threshold) to less than 10 per cent, and reducing the number of children living in relative poverty for three out of any four years. The target for persistent poverty - when a child is in poverty for three out of any four years - will be set by the government at a later date once it has the required data, which is expected to be "before 2015".