Each week we sort through your email and letters to reproduce in Guardian Online... here on the blog we try and answer your queries, publish the otherwise-unpublished and take a deeper look behind the correspondence we get.
If you see anything on the site that makes you mad, happy or just spurs you to comment, then please email us at online.feedback@theguardian.com.
It's a quicker Feedback than normal this week, I'm afraid - it's been a busy day and I haven't been able to take as long as normal. But the biggest issue seemed to be the government's scheme to get people to buy computer hardware, the Home Computing Initiative. Michael Cross wrote about it last week, and it got a big response.
Taking the initiative
Many readers got in touch to ask where they could find out more about the initiative, which lets employees buy hardware over a long period and gives employers a tax break. There's more information at the DTI's Knowledge Network website, here. Here's the basic idea of the scheme: you lease a computer from the HCI over a period of time, and at the end you can buy it for a nominal fee. The hire price comes straight from your salary and means your employer can save on national insurance: this means you effectively get a discount.
Not everybody is happy with the programme, though.
Ian McRobert got in touch to have his say. "My employer offers this, and it is an incredibly bad deal. You do NOT get a £1,500 computer - you get a computer valued by the initiative at £1,500. Real price on the high street or on the web? Vastly less."
Another Ian, this time Ian Foulkes, also wanted to make a point.
"While the idea behind the HCI is highly laudable, the practice falls somewhat short. The fact that the scheme is based upon salary sacrifice means that there is a small, but significant effect on pension entitlement in final salary schemes. In addition, the equipment on offer is usually at the high end of the price bracket for equipment that can be brought in a superstore often for half the price."
Fair points. As we pointed out in the original article, the scheme also misses out those on pensions and low incomes - exactly those who it's meant to help.
Links!
Gary got in touch to complain about the lack of links to relevant stories on our website. "Your story on OK Heart hospital made me want to check out the website, but there was no link to www.okheart.com. Come on people, this is an easy one."
While we try to endeavour that the right information is put onto the web, there are sometimes lapses. Hopefully we'll have something sorted out in the long term, but for now we have to firefight case by case: please let us know where we've gone wrong.
That's all for this week.
Remember, if you want to have your say about anything in Online, then email us at online.feedback@theguardian.com - or leave a comment below.
