I AM writing in response to the letter published in the Daily Echo (Letters October 11) from A Caws which was titled “Will Benefit Claimants Be Given Other People’s Jobs To Do?”

The point I wish to make is this: people employed to pick up litter get paid a wage for doing this and surely would continue to do so.

Some claimants, not all of them, are content to sit back year after year and treat the fact that they have benefits as some sort of prize or gift.

Then of course, we frequently read that greedy ones fiddle thousands of pounds and receive sentences from the courts that are pitifully inadequate.

One has only to visit many parts of Southampton to realise that the filth and litter is far greater than the council workers can be expected to clear up efficiently.

There is no reason why able-bodied claimants should continue to sit back and receive handouts. Let them earn their benefits. If people say “this is the system” I say “change the system!”

ROB JONES, Southampton.