Rowntree's update on cycle of poverty

Back in the mists of time, a Tory social security minister, Peter Lilley, ruled that families on benefits couldn't claim for the cost of second-hand bikes - which seemed a bit perverse, since another Tory, Norman Tebbit, famously said that claimants should seek work by getting on one.

So what items ought to go into a minimum budget? To be poor in modern Britain is to live on less than 60% of the median income, but that official standard tells us nothing about the everyday challenges of poverty.

Before the first world war, Seebohm Rowntree tried to define poverty in York by totting up life's necessities. Now the foundation that bears the chocolate family's name is getting an update.

The method is ingenious. Take a focus group of people on varying incomes, high as well as low, but make sure one is a single mum, another is past retirement age, and so on. Ask them to agree on - and, where necessary, add expert wisdom on - what constitutes, for example, a minimally healthy diet.

Tricky questions will remain, among them whether to allow for a family's past debts and interest payments.

Most people would agree that a pensioner needs enough to be able to afford to send a grandchild a birthday card. But will there be a recommendation that the bike is included? We won't know until the Rowntree Foundation's report comes out in spring next year - by which time the bike could be very rusty.