Exploring relations between non-monetary depreviation and income position using the CHER data

Understanding poverty and the low social status often ascribed to living on a low income requires consideration of more than the financial resources available to individuals and their households. European institutions from EUROSTAT to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions have commissioned recent research to explore the relationship between the possession of goods and financial resources. Researchers in the USA have identified consumer spending on household goods over time as one dimension of understanding the dynamics of poverty (National Research Council 1996). Access to goods and facilities has been shown to have a significant association with levels of poverty over time in European countries (Betti and Cheli 2001, Gordon et. al. 2000). Nevertheless, this association is complex, and the dynamics of lacking basic items are not restricted to households struggling to make financial ends meet (Whelan, Layte and Maître 2001).