CUTTING BOTH WAYS
SIR,—I have been reading Janus's comments on the Health Service in The Spectator of September 3rd. May I fell you about it from another point of view ? I am the wife of a minister on a minimum stipend (£403 per annum) and mother of three children. Because of rising costs it has been difficult to make ends meet for some time. We have no wireless or car and we do not smoke. Our one luxury is The Spectator. The family allowances (105. per week) have been a help, but now my husband has to pay the health insurance (6s. 2d. per week). We have had domestic
help one day a week, but the insurance stamp for that is now doubled, and so makes it impossible. I need not enlarge upon what a benefit that help was in a busy manse.
What the Government has given with one hand (family allowances) it has taken away with the other. Illness may come and the health insurance may turn out to be a blessing, but meantime it is an added hardship. It is the last straw that is going to break the minister's wife's back—although when it dots, break it may be very comforting to have
it treated free in hospital.—Yours truly, A MINISTER'S WIFE.
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