Letter: The positive alternatives to negative income tax welfare schemes

Sir: Although I am sure it would be unpopular with a lot of families currently receiving child benefit, it is ludicrous that some of those same families are, for instance, sending their offspring to private schools. Similarly to Polly Toynbee, I was also on the receiving end of child benefit but as a divorced one-parent family. Fairly well paid, I struggled to send my daughter to private school without much maintenance, but I could never understand why others should have to help subsidise what was my choice. The system has to be changed for a fairer society and a richer country - and the Inland Revenue already has the records to start mailing.

Yours sincerely,

SALLY CRINEAN

Thatcham, Berkshire

10 February