Walking along Church Road in Hove yesterday, I was horrified by the number of down and out people I saw there. I frequently shop in this area and have noticed a recent big increase in people in this situation.

Here are just a few examples: an elderly Asian man picking up discarded cigarette butts and stashing them in his pocket, a woman pushing a child’s buggy piled high with filthy carrier bags, a shoeless man sitting on the ground outside the Town Hall begging, a youngish woman in floods of tears, leaning against a wall, the worse for alcohol.

What is happening in the welfare state system that these people have slipped through its net? Later, I was in a charity shop looking around and was amazed to hear several people come in and ask the staff if they had any free clothing to give to them. These people were in what I can only describe as a truly appalling personal state.

Having worked in the NHS, I’ve seen how easily people can fall into the poverty trap. A job loss, marriage breakdown, repossession of property, alcoholic solace to blot out the problems.

This is the slippery slope to a life of desperation on the streets.

Not since the early 1980s, when I was working in the poorest areas of Brighton with very hard-up people. have I seen anything as bad.

Jill Cowles

Windlesham Road, Shoreham