LETTER : Tip for jobless

Your advice to clear short-term debts in "Redundant but not ruined" (14 April), fails to point out that many credit cards and personal loans offer payment protection insurance that honoursmonthly payments, usually for a year, while claiming benefits.

In the nine months between my redundancy and return to full-time education in 1993 insurance paid around pounds 2,000 off various debts, a rather more significant saving than the interest saved by early settlement.

Colin Baldwin

Scarborough, North Yorkshire