In the UK these definitions are being hotly debated as the Coalition government seeks to change the criteria currently used to monitor and measure child poverty (see the PSE: UK team’s response to these proposals in Tackling Child Poverty and Improving Life Chances and Social Mobility and Child Poverty Review). This section sets out different ways to define and measure poverty and outlines recent key developments. The PSE: UK research project uses the ‘consensual method’, which defines poverty as those whose lack of resources forces them to live below a publicly agreed minimum standard.