SIR

Tax is defined in the dictionary as:  A sum of money demanded by a government, levied upon incomes, property or sales.

The reason why I offer this definition is that many people, including contributers to this letters page, appear to confuse a cut in housing benefit as a tax. The so called 'Bedroom Tax' is therefore a misnomer. If tax payers are giving you money to pay your rent, how is it that you are being taxed, even if that sum is reduced?

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not defending the changes. They target people with next to no money, are complicated, intrusive and (probably) expensive to enforce and will only save about £500 million pa. Given the country is overspending by £120 billion a year that amounts to a deficit reduction of 0.42 per cent. You may as well advocate baling out the Titanic with a thimble.

The fact that the Coalition brought this in and that Labour complained about it shows just how inept and incapable those three parties are at facing up to and dealing with the frightening mountain of debt we are building up for future generations.

Under the last Labour government the national welfare bill rose by 50 per cent. It now consumes the entire revenue take from personal income tax. What country can survive when all of the tax paid by those in work is spent on those who are not? Add to that the fact that 18p in every pound raised is used to service our debt and you begin to appreciate why there isn't much left for defence, schools and hospitals. (Although there seems to be tens of billions spare for the EU and foriegn aid.)

We can't trim delicately at our deficit as Osborne seems to think. Nor can we cling recklessly to Keynesian dogma and borrow our way out of debt as Ed Balls advocates. Everyone has their own view on how money can be saved and spent but it is clear that major savings need to be made and money needs to be invested in long term projects that will benefit the country. Short term fiscal stunts designed to win elections, which is what the last budget was, will help no one in the long term.

Gareth Dunn

(Monmouth)