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Coalition should zero in on the real issue of unfair work contracts Coalition should zero in on the real issue of unfair work contracts
(6 months later)
How amusing that a day after draconian cuts are made to people living on a pittance, by a government composed of millionaires and those born into privilege, it is announced that the Queen is to receive a £5m increase in her official income to over £36m (Royal mint, 3 April). It is an increase related to Crown Estate properties, whose profits have soared – but I wonder how much of the Crown Estate's income comes from the taxpayer? Certainly large sums have gone to the royal coffers from the common agricultural policy in the past. Meanwhile the unreformed and unrepentant banking system is subsidised to an astronomical extent – it owes more than £1tn to the taxpayer.How amusing that a day after draconian cuts are made to people living on a pittance, by a government composed of millionaires and those born into privilege, it is announced that the Queen is to receive a £5m increase in her official income to over £36m (Royal mint, 3 April). It is an increase related to Crown Estate properties, whose profits have soared – but I wonder how much of the Crown Estate's income comes from the taxpayer? Certainly large sums have gone to the royal coffers from the common agricultural policy in the past. Meanwhile the unreformed and unrepentant banking system is subsidised to an astronomical extent – it owes more than £1tn to the taxpayer.
Yes, the unemployment figures and costs in supporting them are immoral but the unemployed are hardly responsible for the west's economic failings and erosion in employment conditions, problems exacerbated by mass immigration and off-shoring of jobs.
Mark Bill
Liverpool		Yes, the unemployment figures and costs in supporting them are immoral but the unemployed are hardly responsible for the west's economic failings and erosion in employment conditions, problems exacerbated by mass immigration and off-shoring of jobs.
Mark Bill
Liverpool
• As minister for disabled people, Esther McVey (At last a fair welfare state, 3 April) should have read the Beveridge Report and known that the welfare state was never intended as a "safety net". It was designed to slay the five "dragons" of want, disease, ignorance, idleness and squalor. All citizens were to pay national insurance contributions which would entitle them, as a right, to benefits in time of need. The (means-tested) safety net was National Assistance, to care for those who, for whatever reason, did not qualify for benefits. It was envisaged that the safety net would wither away as the welfare state became fully implemented, and abject poverty became a thing of the past.• As minister for disabled people, Esther McVey (At last a fair welfare state, 3 April) should have read the Beveridge Report and known that the welfare state was never intended as a "safety net". It was designed to slay the five "dragons" of want, disease, ignorance, idleness and squalor. All citizens were to pay national insurance contributions which would entitle them, as a right, to benefits in time of need. The (means-tested) safety net was National Assistance, to care for those who, for whatever reason, did not qualify for benefits. It was envisaged that the safety net would wither away as the welfare state became fully implemented, and abject poverty became a thing of the past.
Far from "rebalancing the welfare state", these reforms are aimed at putting us back to the days of public assistance, with its dehumanising means tests, and the workhouse.
Mary Brown
Stroud, Gloucestershire		Far from "rebalancing the welfare state", these reforms are aimed at putting us back to the days of public assistance, with its dehumanising means tests, and the workhouse.
Mary Brown
Stroud, Gloucestershire
• Perhaps employment ministers and the Department for Work and Pensions should be targeting the employers and not the employees. My son has a zero-hours contract, selling the product of a multinational company that generates billions in annual profits. His job could not be outsourced overseas. He is paid the minimum wage, and as his job is on a zero-hours contract, he is unable to take on additional part-time work because he does not know, from week to week, what hours he will be working. He is reasonably lucky, in that over a 12-month period, he will average 30 hours per week, although this week, it will be half of that. He is in receipt of working tax credits. If he was paid the living wage, as opposed to the minimum wage, he would not be entitled to these credits. • Perhaps employment ministers and the Department for Work and Pensions should be targeting the employers and not the employees. My son has a zero-hours contract, selling the product of a multinational company that generates billions in annual profits. His job could not be outsourced overseas. He is paid the minimum wage, and as his job is on a zero-hours contract, he is unable to take on additional part-time work because he does not know, from week to week, what hours he will be working. He is reasonably lucky, in that over a 12-month period, he will average 30 hours per week, although this week, it will be half of that. He is in receipt of working tax credits. If he was paid the living wage, as opposed to the minimum wage, he would not be entitled to these credits. 
In my son's case, and I'm sure in many more cases, the tax-payer is helping to boost the profits of a major multinational company. Should they not be the target of the DWP's proposals, by being made to pay the living wage, as opposed to the working poor being the target?
David Jones
London		In my son's case, and I'm sure in many more cases, the tax-payer is helping to boost the profits of a major multinational company. Should they not be the target of the DWP's proposals, by being made to pay the living wage, as opposed to the working poor being the target?
David Jones
London
• How do I get a list of firms using zero-hour contracts? I intend to boycott them, and I will also encourage family and friends to do the same. Surely enough is enough.
Dr Jane Gooding
Mirfield, West Yorkshire 		• How do I get a list of firms using zero-hour contracts? I intend to boycott them, and I will also encourage family and friends to do the same. Surely enough is enough.
Dr Jane Gooding
Mirfield, West Yorkshire
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