Let’s tackle the real source of energy poverty

Martin Lewis is absolutely right in his challenge to Rachel Reeves over the government’s changes to the Winter Fuel Payment.

With the huge profits that energy companies have made over the past few years there still seems to be much reluctance to reduce the cost of energy at its source.

Allowing energy companies to charge exorbitant prices for gas and electricity is a big mistake. Their excessive profits have shocked the consumer and given false hope that future costs will be reduced, especially when green energy is in full swing.

Rather than using taxpayer money to safeguard pensioners, why not reduce the cost at source? We are paying way over the odds for energy, including fuel, and it is a scandal that companies are making excess profits in these times of financial hardship.

I wish Martin Lewis every success in his quest to protect pensioners and others who need to use the benefit system. With energy increases pending and the withdrawal of this much needed support package, winter will be a time of great hardship and desperation for those in need.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

New Alzheimer’s drugs like lecanemab offer long overdue hope that dementia could one day become a treatable condition. But the promise of new drugs mustn’t detract from the urgent need for investment in our struggling social care system.

We must tackle dementia as a social issue, not just a medical one.

Social isolation is as detrimental to health as obesity and smoking, and linked to the risk of developing and worsening dementia.

That’s why to tackle dementia we need to focus on improving people’s care, not just their medical options. Because with proper support, people with dementia can manage their condition better and continue to have a meaningful life.

Libby Price & Dr Liz Dennis, The Filo Project

Exeter

The stringent rules finally being introduced for travel into the Schengen area will no doubt cause travel chaos at peak times, but it is important to stress that this state of affairs was demanded by the British government when negotiating Brexit.

I think back to the days when a driving holiday in France was so easy, and queues minimal, with nostalgia.

Claire Casson

France

Susan Okereke offers a very sensible proposition for improving maths skills in schools. Please can I add a request for schools or colleges to offer sessions to explain to parents and grandparents how maths is being taught today?

I homeschooled my granddaughter during lockdown and had to help her work out part/whole numbers. We had to wait for her teacher mum to come home to explain. Now homework is fractions and the way she is being taught is not in my memory bank – and I do have O-level maths.

A helping hand session would be much appreciated.

Margaret Adams

Keighley