THE issue raised in Letters relating to public sector expenses (The Argus, June 10), is not one I recognise.

In more than 40 years’ work in the public sector, I always understood expenses were reimbursed only if they were actually and necessarily incurred in the course of your duties and were additional to your usual expenditure.

This was to ensure you were not out of pocket from carrying out your duties.

If your job requires you to attend conferences (I used to attend them to hear the latest research findings because my specialist job required me to keep up to date), the travel costs and the conference fee may be claimed.

If daily travel is practical, it will be at the peak-hour cost, of course.

If the conference is too far away for daily travel, the off-peak fare to and from the venue, along with the hotel costs, are claimable.

Large conferences usually secure favourable hotel rates not available to individual customers.

It is doubtful whether food and drink refreshments are claimable because these are expenses you always have wherever you are and do not count as additional expenses.

Usually the conference sponsors paid for the food and drink.

Before criticising expenses, it is necessary to know whether the extra expenditure incurred was necessary to do the job.

A meeting in Singapore may be necessary where political, economic or specialist considerations prevail – it all depends what that person’s job requires.

If claims appear genuinely strange – unrelated to the person’s duties – it may be that the budget needs a better relationship to properly expected claims, to stop hurriedly using up unspent funds on unnecessary items before the year end.

In my experience, public staff take very seriously the proper stewardship of public funds, best practice, best value, and accounting correctly. This is because the staff are taxpayers too.

Paul Bunting, Broomfield Avenue, Worthing

IS A refuse collector really worth more than a carer?

How on earth can Brighton and Hove’s Green administration justify raising the minimum rate for council workers to £8.10 an hour when workers in the private sector have a minimum rate of less than £6 an hour?

Council employees have protected employment, pension plans, generous annual leave, paid sick leave, union representation and public liability insurance.

Commonly, the minimum-waged private sector worker has none of those things.

How can the rise be funded? Central Government limits rises in council tax, so it can’t come from that and will have to be met from existing budgets.

Is an increased council wage bill sustainable? Will they have to “rob Peter to pay Paul” by making cuts in other services? If so, which ones?

Wages for council housing staff are paid from the tenants’ rents.

Services and waste collection are “bought in” from other council departments through service charges.

How will one of the poorest groups in the city be able to afford the increases that will have to be made pay for those?

Small businesses are struggling – few can afford to pay £8.10 an hour.

Many only just survive with the help of family members “mucking in” and would not be able to find the extra money.

Where is the Green Manifesto promise of a “fairer deal for all” in this?

Focus on achieving a living wage for all, not just for those who perhaps already have it better than most.

John Melson, Lavender Street, Brighton