“Poverty was relatively niche”?!!! What a stunningly insulting middle class statement.
Jack’s family background sounds a lot like mine, lower middle class, not wealthy but not poor. Lots of thrift, camping holidays instead of hotels, second hand clothing and own brand food, but no hunger or hardship. Even the description of flat/small house/bigger house mirrors my childhood. Except the third house for me was a three bed semi and unless she’s trying to claim a privy in the yard and a tin bath in front of the fire the second would have been a three down two up, with the bathroom as a single story extension tacked onto the back of the kitchen.
She always had a safety net, if she had called her dad he would have stopped it all. If you have a safety net, no matter how reluctant you are to use it, you’re never really in danger.