WE really need to get our heads around equality and its causes. To be poor is a horrible existence and in aspiring to be richer, there is that bleak and desperate feed which takes someone to a place they feel is better. The only problem with that scenario is that the drugs fix is not sustainable.

Why does poverty exist? Many will say that people have always been poor and yet such a statement seems to accept that no matter what our priorities are in spending, we choose to ignore those who barely exist on a day-today basis.

Poverty brings out the prejudice and we all have a tendency to judge others without knowing who they really are. There are comments claiming those who are not deserving should not receive any forms of benefit.

I have written before about abusing a system and suggesting that there is more tax avoidance among the rich than fraudulent claim by those on low income.

David Cameron and George Osborne purport to have the economy fixed, or at least on a road to recovery. I am afraid I must be looking at a different scenario when I visit and talk to people in once-vibrant communities, which are now have the legacy of being let down.

What I see are people on low income, many of whom are working but suffer the stigma and exploitation meted out by those who proclaim we have a living wage, more people employed and job done. Well that’s the perception portrayed by the prime minister and his chancellor. They would say that the living wage represents equality. What I see is a glossing over of the issues and a misunderstanding, if not an abuse, of the word “equality”.

Bernie Walsh, Coxhoe