Tough choices

Published on 05/02/2013 00:00

While I agree wholeheartedly with Judith Robertson (Letters, 
4 February) that the government needs to crack down on tax evasion and tax avoidance and return the tax credit system and social protection to a viable amount to reduce poverty, she fails to mention benefit fraud, which is also draining the resources of the UK.

However, what scares me the most is that if the government doesn’t make cuts to universal benefits, how can we as a 
nation continue with the 
welfare state, increasing population, longer life expectancy and higher youth and adult unemployment, as these reduce the fiscal ability of a nation to 
support its citizens?

The government will then only have a choice of two solutions: increase taxation to 50 per cent universally, or increase fuel duty so that petrol and diesel will cost as much as £5 per litre.

But be warned: the new legislation allowing everyone to have a company pension is the start of the phasing out of state pensions and if you do not have one you will run the risk of poverty in old age.

The coalition will destroy the welfare state as we know it and this in turn will create greater inequality, which will lead to gated communities and slum housing.

Michael Donaldson

West Avenue

Plains, Airdrie