"They said the last thing they wanted were bloody sandwiches or a Coke. They wanted dosh for a heroin wrap, or enough to get a bottle of cheap cider."

Quite Eliza! A lot of alcoholics don't even eat food after a certain stage. Still, if I buy a wino booze, I'll get them a pasty to go with it anyway. It's their choice whether to eat it or not, and I'm not making a judgement about their lifestyle either.

As for other parts of the world, agreed.
Talking about "poverty" in a country where no-one starves, unless willfully, is a joke.
My mother (who raised me as a single parent on benefits) used to scoff at the grey faced pitiful images of "poverty" that they would put in newspapers.
We weren't well off by a long straw (all my clothes were hand me downs and we never went on holiday) but we weren't in "poverty" either. And there was even enough for her roll ups!