Like Elizabeth Pearson (Letters, 23 March), I have received a letter from the DWP informing me of the extra 25p a week on my pension once I’ve reached 80 years. We should spare a thought for the 1.3 million carers under pension age who are receiving carer’s allowance because they are caring for a close family member or friend for at least 35 hours a week and, if still in paid employment, earning £128 a week at most. In April they will receive an extra 35p per week when this allowance, one of the lowest in our benefit system, is increased to £67.60. This is yet another example of how little care and carers are valued.
Hilary Land
Bristol
• Elizabeth Pearson asks what she might do with her 25p weekly pension increase. We suggest she saves it in a 35mm film canister until she has enough to buy a jar of homemade marmalade.
Su James and David Dowsett
Talybont, Ceredigion
• If Elizabeth Pearson saves her extra 25p a week for exactly 200,000 years, she will have the £2.6m needed to build herself a Boris-style press briefing room.
Bob Epton
Brigg, North Lincolnshire
