This PSE UK analysis working paper asks whether minimum standards have become less generous than in the past and if so why. It examines which items and activities in the 2012 PSE attitudes to necessities survey are considered by a majority of people to be necessary for an acceptable standard of living in the UK today and analyses the degree to which there is a consensus among different groups as to what is a necessity. It concludes that while, overall, the 2012 survey suggests that the public have lowered their expectations of what should constitute a minimum standard compared to 1999, the 2012 survey, like all the previous surveys, found very strong support for the concept of a minimum standard of living strongly shared across all groups in society.