Letter: The Government was warned beggars would be Thatcher's memorial

Sir: Regarding John Major's comments on beggars, it is tempting to say, 'we told you so'. Perhaps it is time we went back to basics. Begging was not a significant problem among the young before the mid-Eighties, when the Government began to cut back on benefits for young people. In 1985 its own Social Security Advisory Committee warned that there was a danger of creating a class of homeless and rootless young people unable to return to the parental home for whatever reason.

At Off the Record - an advice and counselling service for young people based in the centre of Bristol - we saw more than 100 young people directly affected by these new benefit changes. Without exception, those who faced intractable problems had recently been in local authority care, had been physically or sexually abused, or had no family home to return to because their parents had separated and moved in with new partners.

To date, the Government has refused to do enough to respond seriously to what organisations such as Off the Record have been saying on this subject over a number of years and, in spite of a lot of tinkering, nothing fundamental has changed.

For many of us, the return of begging to our streets is Margaret Thatcher's most lasting memorial.

Yours sincerely,

ARTHUR MUSGRAVE

Director

Off the Record

Bristol

28 May