So R Webb (Letters, February 28) asks , “Why in an overcrowded country should we give money to people to have children?”

Maybe so that pensioners like me (and possibly R Webb) can continue to enjoy our pensions paid for by the current working population and later by their children.

Possibly so that often underpaid hard-working families can afford to support our future by having the children who are that future. It seems to me that it is families who are hard done by currently, not OAPs.

How often do I see a young mum struggling on to a bus with a buggy and a small child while trying to dig out the correct fare from her purse while my bus pass gets me a free ride?

Families have a free NHS – so does R Webb. They have free education but R Webb thinks they should be spending their money on that, so presumably he/she thinks our state education isn’t up to the job.

Oh, and families are not supposed to have cars (probably used for parents to get to work) or holidays either.

To ease overcrowding maybe we should go along the lines suggested by Jonathan Swift, of Gulliver’s Travels fame, who “modestly proposed” that the children of the poor should be served up as dinner to the rich.

Or maybe we oldies could reduce the surplus population by jumping off Beachy Head?

I, and Dean Swift, are joking of course. I suspect R Webb isn’t.

Elizabeth Robinson, Queen’s Park Rise, Brighton