LETTER: Lower pay and fewer skills

I MUST take issue with one small part of Lang and Gabriel's excellent article. Rather than having "surplus cash" the 45-plus age group, with more or less grown-up children, are now busier than ever working to pay for those same children to attend university; they are paying mortgages on larger homes bought to house those same children when they were adolescent; they are buying pensions since it is clear that state pensions and superannuation schemes might not be enough; they are helping out with expenses for their parents and grandparents, and they are fed up.

I won't even mention fear of redundancy, short-term contracts, negative equity or concern over NHS provision. No wonder the feel-good factor and increased consumer spending are not even visible on a distant horizon.

Barbara Daniels

Northwich, Cheshire