When household spending, rather than income, is used to measure living standards, relative poverty in Britain has risen, rather than fallen, since 1997, finds a new study by researchers from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The study, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, suggests that a useful alternative definition of relative poverty would be living in a household which spends less than 60% of the median-spending household, rather than the measure most used by the government, which is to be living in a household whose income is less than 60% of the median-income household.