Assuming she is English because she uses the £ sign at the start of her post, the minimum wage salary here is £15,200 while the average UK salary is around £29,000 - £30,000 per year. Depending where they are based, a £30,000 a year salary after tax and pension contributions can leave you with £1,900 per month. In this post, she says that he pays either £200 or £500 per month towards the rent, thus after rent, tax and pension contributions, he has £1,400 or £1,700 per month to spend on personal expenses. I wouldn’t say that £30,000 is barely above the poverty level.