LETTER:Money problems drive families apart

From Mrs Mary Winchester

Sir: Sir Fred Catherwood of the Evangelical Alliance (Letters, 9 June) writes:

Everywhere we've been, there are teenage boys homeless because their mother had to choose between a stroppy teenager and her new man. A teacher in Swindon told us of a boy who had come to him that morning. His father had sent him back to his mother but she didn't want him, so "Where do I go tonight?"

Last week I got a rather different picture in which Swindon also figured.

A 16-year-old knocked on my door, one of a group of teenage peddlers who have been coming to this neighbourhood for several years, selling tea cloths, etc. He looked so young that I inquired into his circumstances. He came from Wallasey, could find no job, got benefit of a little over pounds 50 per fortnight and could not live on it. His mother required pounds 30 per week for his board - his parents were both unemployed.

He and the other boys are put into b&b in Swindon and bussed to their area of operation. They receive no wage, but half of their takings. That is probably why, in the past year, two of them became near-hysterical when I told them that my kitchen drawers were stuffed with their goods and I could buy no more. Presumably their "employer" is not acting illegally.

It seems to me that only better economic and social policies will solve the practical problems of families; and, as for morality, it is easier to be responsible if you have a job, a decent home and a stake in society.

Yours,

MARY WINCHESTER

Bath

10 June