Home help charges a disgrace

The politics of envy strike again. A massive £50-a-week rise in charges for home helps is to be imposed on recipients in Wolverhampton with savings of more than £21,000.

This hike has been condemned as "extortionate" by a former mayor of the city.

It is worse than that. It is iniquitous. It is targeted not at the wealthy - £21,000 is hardly a king's ransom - but at the frugal, the careful, the thrifty.

At a stroke, it will add £2,500 a year to the outgoings of people who are on fixed incomes and already struggling to pay for gas, electricity and council tax.

Some of the older folk singled out for this rough treatment will have scrimped and saved to pay their way. Some may have surrendered part of their property value in equity-release schemes.

Today, thanks to the votes of Labour councillors, they face a financial penalty which will wipe out a £21,000 nest egg in eight years.

Home helps are part of the caring provided by the welfare state. At the heart of this system is the belief that all should be treated equally.

Wolverhampton's move is an affront to that creed and it leads toward a slippery slope.

For if those with savings can be hammered with this £50-a-week rise, why not start charging them extra for rubbish collections, street lighting or NHS operations?

The message from Wolverhampton to people everywhere is simple. Why bother saving?

Why put aside a little cash to pay your bills in old age? Why not simply blow the lot, claim every penny you can in state benefits and let the local council support you?

The wise men and women who founded the welfare state knew that, if it was to work, it had to encourage thrift, not to destroy it.

Their successors in Wolverhampton seem to have lost the plot, imposing a £2,500-a-year penalty on those weak and defenceless people who have dared to accumulate a little money.

Another great victory for New Labour. Proud of yourselves, councillors?

Immigration plan another bad joke

If it wasn't so serious, it would be a hilarious plot for a sit-com.

The Government, having failed utterly to deal with illegal immigration, has come up with a brilliant new plan.

It will send text-messages by mobile phone to those whose visas or permission to stay are about to expire.

Does anyone seriously think such a message will persuade anyone to return home? Of course not.

This is typical Blairite gesture politics - grab a headline today and people may believe Whitehall is actually doing something useful.

How stupid do they think we are?