While our lifestyles are way beyond anything my Parents/Grandparents could hope for, I can imagine for many pensioners living alone, it can be a bit of a struggle from week to week, managing everyday expenses.
So if poverty should not be measured by 'what they would like' then could or should it not be measured by comparison to 'how it was'?
If I look back at my childhood when my grandparents where my age - 1961 I was 12.
They did not have electricity, 'town' gas nor a public sewer.
Heating including that for water came via a coal range. The only toilet was out in the garden in a stone built shack with the waste being collected by a large metal container below the hole in the wooden toilet seat. A tin bath for the weekly soak and washing clothes by hand in a tub.
Lighting was provided by calor gas. Cooking was via a paraffin run range.
Now looking back at those days no one ever complained about what they didn't have or wanted. We had enough food to feed us albeit that nothing was shop bought including bread.
Do I see pensioners today living in those conditions? I doubt it.