With regard to J Maskell (Letters, November 2), I know of a single mother of three children by different fathers who left school at 16 and worked for three hours before walking out.

She is now 45 and has not worked since.

She has received an astronomical amount in benefits, including a three-bedroom council house to live in - its rent paid by the taxpayer, of course.

I would dearly love to know exactly how much money all the benefit agencies have given this woman in the past 30 years and how she has been allowed to get away with it and not been made to work.

The cost must run into hundreds of thousands of pounds - enough to build a cancer unit, perhaps?

We allow this to happen while pensioners are being imprisoned for non-payment of council tax. Yet they fought for our country, worked and paid their taxes, and for what?

To give a blank cheque to someone who has decided it's easier to have children and get free accommodation than work.

-Name and address supplied