I BELIEVE any civilised society should care and provide for its weakest and most vulnerable. I also believe every benefit should be means-tested. This would enable the neediest to receive benefit.

I therefore support the coalition Government’s efforts to shave down those who receive child benefit, but it cannot be right that a couple earning a huge joint salary, both of whom are just under the 40 per cent tax bracket, will receive child benefit yet a single wage earner in that 40 per cent bracket will not.

Similarly, the carte blanche distribution of bus passes and heating allowance works to the advantage of all – not just the needy and vulnerable – and they also should be addressed in any welfare reform.

This issue was a Labour priority in 1997, but when the answers were furnished no one in its administration had the courage to introduce those reforms. Labour continued to give money to everyone, irrespective of income, hence the state of the economy.

The coalition has had the courage to begin benefit reform.

It can do this by means-testing and strong enforcement of welfare abuse. It can forge a fairer society, but it must listen and be prepared to acknowledge it will not always get it right first time.

Colin T Mortimer, Pity Me, Durham.