IN reply to Nick Holt (Letters, February 8) who attacks pensioners for "living off the backs" of taxpayers, yes, we DID pay into a pension scheme for over 50 years - it was a government pension scheme.
But instead of keeping the money in a separate account and investing it as any company would do, they spent it as fast as they got it. Now, they say they can't pay the pensioners a pension befitting the cost of living.
Having contributed for more than 50 years, I do not consider my pension to be a handout.
Who, Mr Holt, do you think was paying the taxes when you received your education? Who paid the taxes that formed the welfare state and kept it going? Who pulled the country through the years of war so that people like you can live in a free society and have the luxury of writing ridiculous letters?
I suggest, Mr Holt, that, before you put pen to paper in future, you do some homework first.
JOHN MATTHEWS, Yew Tree Drive, Lammack, Blackburn.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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