ABSTRACT
Poverty among the working population is not the result of individual laziness or other personal psychological characteristics but of the inability of the economic system to provide employment for all and to pay adequate wages to all. Generally the view that poverty is caused by personal laziness and irresponsibility has been abandoned among social scientists. Both the wage system which is largely beyond the scope of government action and the social security system which is largely a government responsibility are equally responsible for the existence of poverty in the country. The national standard for house-heating set up by the committee under Sir Parker Morris in 1961 can be useful in deciding how much should be allowed for heating in social security benefits. The philosophy behind subsistence poverty and the social security measures designed to deal with it are largely determined by social values which explicitly or implicitly support the existing social and economic system.
