Others may think that a family is poor if it cannot afford to send the children on school excursions. An elderly couple living in a wealthy suburb may feel poor because they find it difficult to pay high council rates for their home. The literature on poverty reflects these various views. Units of measurement Income units are made up of one person or a group of related persons within a household, whose income is assumed to be shared. Net income is gross income minus direct taxes.
Poverty Lines are threshold income values.
If a family's income is below the value applicable for that family, then that family is deemed to be in poverty. In developed countries such as Australia, poverty studies usually adopt the relative approach. All families are ranked according to levels of equivalent income, and a poverty line is drawn at some point on the distribution. If the family's income is below that line, then they are said to be in poverty. However, the level at which that poverty line is drawn is subjective.