Fire services need better funding too, Sajid Javid. It’s time we were given more support

Home secretary Sadiq Javid has confirmed he will “fight on behalf of police to ensure they have the resources they need to do their jobs effectively”. This was a statement he made to the police superintendents on 11 September.

We all recognise the police need extra resources to cope with rising challenges but the fire service is in exactly the same position, responding to many of the same incidents as the police and with the added burden of having to enter dangerous buildings and cope in life threatening situations.

Will the home secretary confirm he is also fighting to ensure the fire service has the full resources it needs, to work alongside its partner blue-light services and, as usual, lead on rescue and firefighting?

For the avoidance of doubt, it has been confirmed by external auditors the fire service does not have the capital reserves that could be used for this vital revenue expenditure.

Cllr Leslie Byrom, chair of the Merseyside Fire & Rescue Authority
Merseyside, Liverpool

State pension age

Like so many, my wife and I have played the game all our lives. We planned for our retirement and because of a slight age difference, we had planned to continue working in our own business until September 2019, when I receive my state pension, and to defer my private pension until that time. I was relatively lucky in that, being born in March 1954, I only have six months extra to wait. My wife, on the other hand, has had 10 per cent of her age added and now has to wait a further three years before reaching 66.

This has resulted in a loss to our finances of around £60,000 and it is probable I will now have to carry on working until I’m nearly 69, when my wife will eventually get her state pension. This will mean I will have to occupy employment that perhaps younger people could take, so we’ll probably see unemployment in younger people rising as a result.

Perhaps a two-year wait for women would have been palatable but six years really is disgusting. The decision needs to be reversed and if not in full, then at least by some sensible and realistic number of years – not six!

Jeff Calvert
Address supplied

I am a woman who had the misfortune of being born in 1954. For that reason alone, my state pension age change means I have to work a further five and a half years. The most annoying aspect of this is not the age change, but the fact I was given no notice at all about it. I sent for a pension forecast 11 months before my 60th birthday, to then find out I would not receive my pension on my 60th birthday. To say I was shocked is an understatement; if I had been given this information earlier, I may have had the opportunity to look for a less demanding job.

Some 3.6 million women have not been informed and we are now fighting to receive the state pension we have been robbed of by the government, and we are going to fight this to the end. It would be fantastic to have your support.

Bett Johnson
Louth, Lincolnshire

Why doesn’t the government adopt the New Zealand pension system by introducing Universal Superannuation – which does not relate to what you earn, and is claimable by all, regardless of how long you worked? These amounts are collected from your tax and the system does not seem to be in debt. The government invests the profits from the money collected to pay for pensions in future. It would be simple for our government to implement, as the mechanism already exists, and would be cost effective.

GT Norton
Address supplied

Brexit caused division, but we can change that

Lewis Chinchen’s worries about division in society in the event of a second referendum ignores the extensive and damaging division that continues to threaten the wellbeing of society and has been present since the first one. Surely the point about a second referendum is that it would strengthen democracy, not weaken it.

David Lowndes
Soberton, Southampton

Ruth Davidson and mental health

Ruth Davidson is to be applauded for taking the courageous step of prioritising her family and mental health issues over political ambitions.

Mental health problems are always shrouded in secrecy, stigma, privacy, discrimination, marginalisation, economic alienation and ostracism. Mental health should be treated on a par with physical health, as it also blights lives and leaves people traumatised by indelible social and economic scars.

Also, in my part of the world, we treat elderly parents to the level of worship. In the UK, they place the elderly in care homes to languish amid abuse, isolation and loneliness. It is time to build a shared society on the foundations of compassion, fairness, equality and social cohesion.

Dr Munjed Farid al Qutob
London NW2