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Just some research I would like to go over:

(1) From Northern Ireland:

Keeping Up Appearances: Low-Income Consumers' Strategies Aimed At Disguising Poverty


(2) Wellbeing, consumer culture and the ‘new poor’

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Note that, as always, the 6 sacred words apply:  Nothing that is so, is so.

For example, poverty (existing on low-income), even at the level of homelessness and dependency on Emergency Shelter (Social Services), may carry stigma but that stigma is not as painful as living in the bushes as a cave-dweller in the 21st century ... unless you can make it to Montana and are able to build some kind of shack or yurt.   

Just because one does not have money in the bank and is depending on government for assistance does not imply one is (1) uneducated, (2) a "drug addict", (3) abusing alcohol, (4) suffering from mental illness, although living in the "natural state" in an urban or suburban area may lead to (2), (3), and (4).

One may easily imagine what George Carlin would call a "high-tech low-life" --- that is, someone who possesses more technical knowledge and skill than the heads of the government departments he is depending on for "sustenance".

This is a glaring example of Nothing that is so, is so.

It would imply that the "system" is broken, and that gainful employment via higher education does not necessarily pan out, especially if one lacks the ability to "do as you are told without questioning authority."

Those who end up having you at their mercy may be less ethical, less educated, and maybe even malignantly evil.   They do have money in the bank and the "status symbols" giving them a false sense of superiority simply because, well, to be blunt, they are boot-licking yes-men (and yes-women) who have been rewarded for playing their role as Little Fascist in charge.