According to the council tax action group, Isitfair, (www.isitfair.co.uk) reports about the number of council employees being paid £50,000, or more, do not tell the full story with regard to the total, taxpayer-funded cost of employing these people.

This is because these reports were based only on the salaries paid and did not take into account other costs for which the taxpayer also has to foot the bill, and in particular costs associated with employer (i.e. taxpayer) contributions to the employees’ pensions.

These other costs add considerably to the total.

Whether all this money – the salaries, the employer pension contributions, and the employer NIC – comes from council tax or from general taxation is neither here nor there. Whichever way you look at it, it is all our money and, under threat of legal action, we are all forced to pay it from income on which we have already paid our own income tax, NIC, VAT, and other taxes.

And to cap it all, from what is left of our income we are also expected to make our own pension arrangements.

This state of affairs cannot continue.

Christine Melsom
Church Lane
Headley