JOE Wellthorpe seems to condemn pensioners for the situation they are in (HAS, May 17). Well, give it time At 65, the local council said I was too old to work and dismissed me. It was then impossible to find another job.

So at 83, the only work I can find is voluntary at local hospitals.

Of course, my war disabled pension is tax free, so I can hand it over to the local authority for council tax. While serving as a rear gunner on Lancaster Bombers, the raid to Berlin took nearly ten hours and because of Bomber Command, Hitler had to use almost one million servicemen defending Germany's towns and cities which, if they had been free, might have won the war.

Now, most male pensioners are those who helped to save this country from Hitler. I started work at 14 in a shipyard and, apart from four years in the RAF, worked each year - 42 of them as a firefighter, so contributing to old people's pensions. I have always been glad I was able to do so.

People who think pensioners are on a good thing should wait until they reach that age and then see if they can justify their comments.

E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill, Co Durham.