SIR: Those who criticise the Government's drive to reform the Welfare State offer no alternative to change and fail to grasp the fact that the present system falls a long way short of its aims. Most critically, it is absorbing ever increasing sums of public money, but failing to reduce poverty.

The previous Government spent an extra £44 billion on social security yet poverty increased dramatically and society has become less equal. One in four families lives on less than half the average income today, compared with one in 10 in 1979. Furthermore, there are nearly four million children living in poverty as the number of households with no-one working has doubled since 1979 to one in five. At the same time, benefit fraud, which is estimated to cost £4-5 billion a year is enough to build 100 large hospitals.

It is not helping those it should and too often holds people back. For many people, the Welfare State today is not a pathway out of poverty but instead a dead end. The Government's New Deal for the young and long-term unemployed, launched recently, will go a long way to help address these problems. It will offer real jobs and training and a real stake in Britain's future.

Marc Schmid

Lower Landedmans

Westhoughtonn

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