The condition of being indigent; lack of estate, or means of comfortable subsistence; penury; poverty; as, helpless indigence.

a state of extreme poverty or destitution; "their indigence appalled him"; "a general state of need exists among the homeless"

Indigence was a classification of poverty widely used during the early 1800s. It referred to the inability of a poor person to support themselves for example through illness or a disability or a lack of work. There was a clear differenciation between poverty which was essential in order to make people work and indigence which was considered unacceptable.