If the sums quoted in the papers and TV are correct, how can anyone be expected to live on £32,000 a year or £36,500 with overtime?

The original offer would only have given them the derisory sum of £46 to £51 per week more.

Having said this, me and my wife manage on less than one third of their basic wage and part of this is made up of a small private pension I paid into for 20 years.

I wonder, do they get a concession on the petrol they use for their own vehicles? When do they take retirement and what kind of pension will they be on?

When they took industrial action, did it occur to them that it could jeopardise some people from getting to work as their cars could have ran out of petrol – people who are lucky to get half of what they earn.

Mind you, I've got to admit on April 6, this year me and my wife got a rise, between us of £6 per week on our government pensions.

But as everything we pay out has gone up, I estimate we'll be 5 per cent worse off than last year.

R A Pringle,
Alderwood Close,
Hartlepool.