An understandable response but a tad simplistic. I’ve worked in advice work for close to four decades. There are plenty of people on low incomes who historically have often had a significant disposable income. I include people on benefits in that up until the introduction of the benefit freeze, cap and UC. Lots of people, and I’ve friends who have done this, who earned large and early; chose to get out and have chosen to not taken pensions early but just live fairly straightforwardly. Disability benefits are wholly misrepresented as being about the extra costs of disability. Where that applies then yes they tend to get absorbed as part of everyday expenditure and leave people with minimal disposable incomes. Where that’s not the case then there are often significant disposable incomes resulting in capital accruing and overpayments of means-tested benefits in consequence.
The other side of this is people with quite significant incomes who find themselves with outgoings they could not have imagined because of Covid, the so-called cost of living crisis; negative equity; legal costs etc.
So, really not at all as simple as “expenditure choices are for those with a decent income”.
Wholly agree with regard to economic illiteracy.
Edit: sorry, should have added that as a public sector worker I have taken a pay cut in 28 of the last 31 years.