SIR – There are often references in the Worcester News letters page to the huge public debt left by the last Labour government.

Readers might be interested to learn that UK public debt by GDP is lower than that in Germany, France, Canada, USA, Belgium and Japan.

Why, then, are we seeing the Government and the council making such huge cuts, throwing thousands out of work and then reducing their entitlements to state benefits?

The answer is because the Tories are using the debt crisis to dismantle the State in this country and soon, if they are allowed to get away with it, we will have no public services at all.

I was hearing heart-rending stories of hardship as I campaigned in the local elections and people are very angry indeed about what is happening to services they depend on.

I was particularly moved at the plight of someone who wrote to me recently, feeling absolutely desperate at not being able to get the correct information about her entitlement to child benefit.

She also told me about an elderly and infirm neighbour who was unable to get any response to a request for support in the home, to which, on paper he looked to be entitled.

Then a pensioner told me that she regularly gets notices to say her rent is in arrears, which worries her a great deal. When she rings to check, she is told it’s a mistake. So when we are told that savings are being made to back office services rather than frontline workers, we now understand what this means – requests for help are simply not being processed correctly, it seems.

That’s a very smart way to reduce demand.

CHRIS CAWTHORNE
Worcester