ANONYMOUS columnist John Blunt (LET August 9), not for the first time, took a pot-shot at the county council's Welfare Rights Service. I am afraid neither his judgment nor his aim has improved.

The Welfare Rights Service provides information, advice and advocacy to a wide range of people who need help securing the pensions and allowances to which they are entitled. In the last 12 months the service delivered 40,000 advice transactions and assisted 2,000 people with their appeal tribunals.

We do this by office interviews, local outpost advice sessions, telephone advice sessions, home visits and by letter.

Additionally, we organise take-up projects and campaigns, the latest being an immensely successful project working with GPs in Ribble Valley, which has delivered more than £200,000 in unclaimed benefits to 80 elderly pensioners. More work of this kind is planned.

The service has this year had its Charter Mark renewed (awarded for excellence), acquired the first legal services contract to be awarded to a local authority service and attained a 98 per cent satisfaction rating in its sixth annual customer survey -- and over 76 per cent said the service was good.

John Blunt, from his secret silo, sees all this as 'encouraging benefits dependency,' so I extend an invitation to him to come out into the daylight and visit our welfare rights office.

He will meet highly professional staff who are delivering a much-needed service to tens of thousands of Lancashire residents every year whose circumstances, because of old age, health or financial hardship, are maye not so favourable as his then maybe he also could benefit from some good advice instead of harbouring this deep-seated resentment?

COUNTY COUNCILLOR FRANK McKENNA, deputy leader, Lancashire County Council and chairman Welfare Rights sub-committee