Poorest hardest hit

WHY are we surprised that 36 million people in this country take more from the state than they pay in (Mail)? It is built into the system.

It’s down to the way inflation is calculated and the increasing wealth gap. Increasing numbers of people are unable to afford rent, fuel, food and council taxes, which triggers increasing benefit claims.

Inflation hits the poorest many times harder than it does those who are comfortably off because the basic costs of living are a greater proportion of their income.

Percentage increases across the board, triggered by the inflation calculations, disadvantage the poor and are not needed by the rich.

The change from rates to council tax and the privatisation of essential services was the start of the problem. Why isn’t there money to help the poor and homeless, yet billions to spend on Ukraine’s war?

But there is no incentive for change when our policymakers benefit from the system.

RICHARD BRUCE, Yarmouth, Isle of Wight.