Rather than chase after people who have not claimed what they are owed (Forget ‘benefit cheats’ – £23bn a year is going unclaimed. How do we get that to vulnerable people?, 23 December), the restoration of universal benefits without means tests, for all children and all pensioners, would be simpler and fairer. The better-off then pay their share through higher income tax. That is how a welfare state works.
Dr Sebastian Kraemer
London
• My husband and I received letters from the DWP recently to say we’d not be getting our fuel allowance this year, total value around £300. However, the same department failed to write and inform me of my six years’ loss of pension, total value in excess of £50,000. Where is the logic in that (Letters, 22 December)?
Kate Rous
Walpole, Suffolk
• Poorna Bell doesn’t mention the irritation of being on holiday with someone who has brought all their WhatsApp friends with them (I imposed a holiday WhatsApp ban – but would my friends and family respect it?, 27 December). Constant pings and a seeming need to immediately respond makes one wonder whose company they really prefer.
John Warburton
Edinburgh
• Why doesn’t WhatsApp offer the “out of office” automatic response that protects us from intrusive work emails?
Bill Kingdom
Oxford
• Re Joe Cocker’s observations (Letters, 25 December), at nearly 70, I’m not great with my smartphone, but I get by with a little help from my friends.
Phil Sinnott
Crosby, Merseyside
• Could your readers trying to spot Eddies, Nobbies, Pottos, Willies and Wiseman dairy lorries on the motorway (Letters, 27 December) please concentrate on driving? I’d feel an awful lot safer.
Melvyn Ellis
Harrogate, North Yorkshire
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