Heather Platt (Letters, July 3) should not consider herself so badly off.

Many people claiming housing benefit in Brighton and Hove are subject to totally unfair rent restrictions.

The average rent for a two-bedroom house is now at least £180 per week (look in The Argus Property) and benefit is often restricted by the rent officer, through local reference rent regulations, to about £140, which means people on benefit have to find the extra out of income support or low wages.

While they are housed in the private sector, Brighton and Hove City Council will not consider them for council housing because they are not "in housing need", no matter how low their wages or how unsuitable or expensive their home is.

There are also other, much more reasonable expenses which are not taken into account by housing benefits.

When I worked full-time in London, my fares to work of £60 a week were not taken into account, nor the £25 a week I paid a local teenager (an unregistered carer - what registered childminder would do this?) to pick up my daughter from after-school club and care for her for an hour while I got home.

This meant my daughter and I were living on less than £50 a week to cover all expenses. Needless to say, I had to give up the prospect of a Civil Service career in London.

Mrs Platt might also be recommended to take her daughter out of private education. It is a luxury, like owning your own home or eating caviar, that people on low incomes cannot afford.

If her income is low enough to receive benefit, she should get real and realise she has joined many of us in the ranks of the poor.

Unless anyone else has informed her, a perfectly good education is available for free for Mrs Platt's daughter in this country, unlike in many African nations where people living on real poverty wages have to find money if they wish their children to have any sort of education.

Sorry to hear of your plight, Mrs Platt, but I won't be heard sobbing into my cocoa for you tonight.

-Lenna Santamaria, Jersey Street, Brighton