SO it was announced that one of the major energy companies is going to increase its prices by nine per cent and it is expected other suppliers will follow suit.

With the proposed increases in rail, travel, petrol and everything else, more and more people are going to feel real hardship this winter – especially pensioners.

I dread to think by how much the local authority is planning to increase the council tax, especially as it has been frozen by the Government for the past two years.

Taking into account your income and any savings you may have, you can get pension credit if you are a pound or two under what the Government states you need to live on. This being a benefit, you can save paying £35 or more each week. It should all be done on a sliding scale.

Nationally, I suspect that there are households where maybe two, or even three generations within, have never done a day’s work. These probably amount to tens, or even hundreds of thousands of households.

Why doesn’t the Government send all the east European workers home and give our homegrown benefit scroungers who are able-bodied a choice of several jobs? If the wages are not the same as the benefits they presently receive, give them a lesser benefit to make their money up. It might give them some self respect. If they won’t work or get sacked, no more benefits.

This would save the tax payer millions or even billions, and then those who genuinely need to live on benefits because they are incapacitated would not have to suffer cuts as in care and such like.

MICHAEL CLARKE, Lewell Avenue, Old Marston