Letter: Benefits do not help genuine claimants

Letter: I refer to a letter in Wednesday's edition of the Shropshire Star concerning an annoyed benefit claimant 'No Name', who has sadly been made redundant.

I would like to make a point that employed people such as myself also get annoyed by the fact that far too many claimants out there know exactly how to "screw the system" and laugh at people who work to earn a living.

There are the claimants who say they're unfit for work yet they are fit enough to pace the town's streets each and every day. Fit enough to chain smoke and spend hours drinking the pubs dry. And where does the money come from?

I am a 56-year-old, not so well woman, yet I have to walk to work every day and my husband works hard shifts lugging timber across the country. We do this to provide food for the table and pay our bills.

But what really does anger the majority of working folk is that when something goes wrong for them and they find themselves in the intimidating situation of needing to make a financial claim, many are refused, and those already in receipt of benefits get more and more help.

I agree that indeed there are those who do need to claim especially if they have recently been made redundant, and there are those obviously disabled, but if one tries hard enough and becomes less picky, there are nearly always jobs for the able-bodied. No-one needs to be on benefits for months or years when they're not genuinely ill.

Yes we all have the right to live on planet earth, we also all have a duty and right to maintain it.

Julie Reynolds

Newtown