Will the NS&I changes make us spend more?

NOT only has the Grey Vote been alienated by cancelling free TV licences, but now our income will be reduced further by the massive drop in interest on NS&I Income Bonds from November. We were encouraged to invest in these bonds, but now it seems NS&I doesn’t want our money (or perhaps it hopes we will leave the money with it). I urge people not to bother to save — after all, the State can look after us when we need to go into care, can’t it? It doesn’t pay to do the right thing any more.

P. Staples, address supplied.

so tHe treasury thinks that by slashing ns&I rates, it will encourage spending rather than saving, does it? Having worked full-time for 40 years and saved for my retirement, I became unemployed two months before lockdown in march, at the age of 57. I intended to find part-time work to supplement the small interest income on my savings, until retirement in ten years’ time. and then Covid hit. Jobs are now few and far between and interest on savings is diddly-squat. along with other middle englanders, I have had no financial aid from the Government throughout lockdown, as my hard-earned savings put me just over the threshold for benefits. so thanks very much, mr sunak, but I definitely won’t be going out spending now.

a. Fairbairn, luton, beds. I AM appalled by NS&I’s savage cuts to the interest rates on its investments — particularly as they apply to Income Bonds, on which many pensioners of modest means rely for monthly income. While I realise the troubles facing the economy, it seems that an undue punishment is being inflicted on many who have kept to the emergency rules and are the least able to bear a significant drop in their income.

John Bellis, rolleston-on-Dove, Derbys.