It’s tricky venturing into the deserving/undeserving poor debate (Deborah Orr, 6 May). Those who help “the poor”, through any of the various agencies, always risk looking naive and childish.
We (almost) all agree that there must be a safety net. Even those at the harsh end of the right know that, if only to keep a lid on poverty-driven crime. The question is how you set the benefit system’s failsafe mechanism. Do you believe that the greatest risk is giving to the undeserving, at cost to the public purse, or does the unacceptable risk lie in denying many of the truly deserving with harsh, rigid tests and long frustrating processes of appeal?
At present the dial of the state machine seems to be set to brutal: don’t let a single penny go to anybody who could possibly be “at it”.
Wesley Stuart
Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire
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