SIR - I would like to raise a matter of entitlement for Social Services payments.

My husband has worked since he was 15-year-old, paying his National Insurance as the years went by, 46 years in all.

I too paid my NI contribution up until early retirement in 1993. In 1995 my husband also took early retirement.

Both of us receive a small, monthly pension and this, along with my husband's part-time job, kept us ticking over.

Unfortunately my husband was taken ill in 2005 and is no longer able to work.

We applied for incapacity benefit and disability living allowance. We were then told that because my husband had only worked part-time for the last two years he was only entitled to pension tax credit which does have its perks.

But both our pensions and savings etc, have been taken into account for the total weekly sum of £181 - the amount that pensioners get!

We might as well have lived all these years on benefits as we would be just as well off.

Linda Goodwin, Oakfield Drive, Baildon