SIR – I clearly upset some bleeding heart liberals with my last correspondence about the cut in housing benefits (T&A, April 3). May I reiterate, it is not a tax. Maybe Mr Lacy is due to receive a cut in his.

But here’s the thing. The pot I have paid into is clearly running on empty, as is a family friend’s pot.

She started work at 14 years old. She left school at 14 and started work in the mills, paid into the system and now, in her mid-80s, she is virtually housebound due to a facility that was provided to take her to a day care centre being withdrawn because of cuts in resources.

However, the Philpotts of this world can command benefits unprecedented in our caring, compassionate society. It seems one’s cup is full and one is empty.

Dear dear, if only she had become a drug-dependant alcoholic with 15 children, she would have retired in Spain with a paid-for pad enjoying the sunshine.

How unfair. If wanting taxes to be used in a fair and compassionate way in today’s society makes me selfish, bring it on.

D Hodgson, Falcon Road, Bingley