Each year the Commission on social exclusion presents a «Poverty Report» which illustrates, through a series of indicators and analyses, the main features of poverty in Italy and the policies which have been implemented to contrast it in the previous year. Most of the data presented initially seem to be easily interpreted but it is not always the case: in the construction of some indicators, there may be some hidden conceptual traps which can be misleading and offer a distorted vision of the reality. Without a «preventative» clarification of what is really meant by poverty, you run the risk of misinterpreting the real condition of poor families and the most appropriate policy measures needed to improve their standard of living. It is thus necessary to clear up any possible confusions to prevent any policy mystification from causing policy errors.only subscribers can see the full article