These really are the words of minister

IN the Littlehampton Gazette of June 9, there is a letter from Maria Miller entitled “We are committed to helping disabled people”, with an abrasive and highly offensive fourth paragraph, which says:
By The Newsroom
Published 17th Jun 2011, 06:20 BST

“It can’t be right, for instance, that more people get £51.40 per week, the higher rate mobility, of DLA (disability living allowance) for drug and alcohol abuse than for blindness.”

Is this journalism gone mad? Maybe it was not in the original article?

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If it was, however, I’m amazed at how dreadful it is that the government minister for disabled people should have made such a disparaging comment about disabled people.

I am especially horrified because I myself receive this element of DLA but, although I am not blind, neither am I an alcoholic nor a drug abuser, merely a “normal” disabled person.

Are these really Maria Miller’s words? I do hope not.

Marion Porreca

Kent Road

Littlehampton

Editor’s note: those are indeed Maria Miller’s words. And it certainly is not “journalism gone mad” – we would never add to a letter in the manner suggested. The letters pages are precisely for people to voice their own opinions and any editing will always be of a minor nature, for clarification, correction, length or style.