I read with such sadness (One man's story, The Tablet, 13 December) and the harsh implementation of sanctions to benefit claimants. This story illustrates the draconian and rigid way, they are issued without scant regard to the consequences. I have written to my local paper on the same subject and feel we must all take up the cudgels to make the Government realise that this not acceptable practice.
I did not appreciate that other benefits are affected and the whole flimsy economic structure of life unravels with such speed and complete lack of compassion and empathy. Obviously there have to be rules, but surely they can be administered with more grace and fairness. The actual word sanction should only apply to regimes and countries that offend against the civilised world. Applying this to people who are struggling in modern day Britain to feed themselves and support their families is an unacceptable term and we can all witness, “There but for grace of God go I.”
Judith A. Daniels, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
Revd Paul Nicholson is rightly horrified by the insensitivity of welfare decisions made in a specific case (Letters, 13 December). He should not be surprised at this; I am not. There was a fuss not so long ago when it was discovered that the Cabinet is dominated by the privately educated. I have taken to googling MPs, ministers, celebrities of all sorts and have discovered that those who have power and influence in our society are overwhelmingly from private schools.
It costs an average of about £15,000 per annum per child to buy the privilege of a private education. It is difficult to see how those whose families can afford such costs can ever have routinely had any first hand experience of real need or of the sort of life lived by those lacking family wealth. The recent suggestion of Baroness Jenkin that the reason food banks are so much used is that the poor can't cook is a case in point. Had the Baroness more experience of life across the social spectrum she would realise that cookery has been a staple subject for boys and girls in state secondary schools for years.
The dominance of the better-off not only leads to the unchristian injustice observed by Revd Nicholson; it also skews society and leads to the sort of bad governance that threatens the social fabric.
Revd Patrick Bryan, Palmer's Cross, Wolverhampton
Loading ...
