Mrs D Reeves tells us her grandson collected his dole, hot-footed it to the pub and, while downing a pint, had his jacket containing his recently-acquired wad stolen (Letters, May 4) and, consequently, his family of five will starve until his next handout arrives.

Perhaps when it does, Mrs Reeves should suggest that, rather than fritter away his family's benefit money in the pub, he keeps his jacket on and heads straight for the supermarket, thus ending his dependents' crash diet.

-Graham Taylor, Brighton