needful

prerequisite

compulsory, mandatory, nonelective, obligatory

consequential, crucial, important, major, material, meaningful, momentous, significant, substantial, weighty

basic, central, fundamental, key, organic

insistent, persistent, pressing, urgent

deprived, disadvantaged, dispossessed, underprivileged

bankrupt, bankrupted, bust (or busted), insolvent

possessionless, ruined

depressed, distressed, hand-to-mouth, hardscrabble, pinched, reduced, straitened

cash-strapped, low, short