{"id":17025,"date":"2024-12-29T17:38:58","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T16:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/29\/universal-benefits-of-a-proper-welfare-state-brief-letters\/"},"modified":"2024-12-29T17:38:58","modified_gmt":"2024-12-29T16:38:58","slug":"universal-benefits-of-a-proper-welfare-state-brief-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/29\/universal-benefits-of-a-proper-welfare-state-brief-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal benefits of a proper welfare state | Brief letters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A simpler system | Waspi response | WhatsApp on holiday | Intrusive work emails | Smartphones | Eyes off the Eddies<\/p>\n<p>Rather than chase after people who have not claimed what they are owed (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2024\/dec\/23\/benefits-unclaimed-vulnerable-pension-credit-government\">Forget \u2018benefit cheats\u2019 \u2013 \u00a323bn a year is going unclaimed. How do we get that to vulnerable people?, 23 December<\/a>), the restoration of universal benefits without means tests, for all children and all pensioners, would be simpler and fairer. The better-off then pay their share through higher income tax. That\u00a0is\u00a0how a welfare state works.<br \/><strong>Dr Sebastian Kraemer<\/strong><br \/><em>London<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u2022 My husband and I received letters from the DWP recently to say we\u2019d not be getting our fuel allowance this year, total value around \u00a3300. However, the same department failed to write and inform me of my six years\u2019 loss of pension, total value in excess of \u00a350,000. Where is the logic in that (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/money\/2024\/dec\/22\/waspi-decision-will-lead-to-voters-deserting-labour\">Letters, 22 December<\/a>)?<br \/><strong>Kate Rous<\/strong><br \/><em>Walpole, Suffolk<\/em><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2024\/dec\/29\/universal-benefits-of-a-proper-welfare-state\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/3f4d48efdd02888ebf6b3e7d371c7f2216ad8b89\/0_361_6720_4032\/master\/6720.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=41177b9716487f1c46ef5d71ea304426\" title=\"Universal benefits of a proper welfare state | Brief letters\" \/>A simpler system | Waspi response | WhatsApp on holiday | Intrusive work emails | Smartphones | Eyes off the Eddies<br \/>\nRather than chase after people who have not claimed what they are owed (Forget \u2018benefit cheats\u2019 \u2013 \u00a323bn a year is going unclaimed. How do we get that to vulnerable people?, 23 December), the restoration of universal benefits without means tests, for all children and all pensioners, would be simpler and fairer. The better-off then pay their share through higher income tax. That\u00a0is\u00a0how a welfare state works.Dr Sebastian KraemerLondon<br \/>\n\u2022 My husband and I received letters from the DWP recently to say we\u2019d not be getting our fuel allowance this year, total value around \u00a3300. However, the same department failed to write and inform me of my six years\u2019 loss of pension, total value in excess of \u00a350,000. Where is the logic in that (Letters, 22 December)?Kate RousWalpole, Suffolk Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A simpler system | Waspi response | WhatsApp on holiday | Intrusive work emails | Smartphones | Eyes off the Eddies Rather than chase after people who have not claimed what they are owed (Forget \u2018benefit cheats\u2019 \u2013 \u00a323bn a year is going unclaimed. How do we get that to vulnerable people?, 23 December), the &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/29\/universal-benefits-of-a-proper-welfare-state-brief-letters\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Universal benefits of a proper welfare state | Brief letters<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17025"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}