AFTER recently becoming unemployed I decided to apply for Universal Credit.

After numerous texts and job centre meetings over a period of 10 weeks without any income at all I finally got a payment date, my payment was a big fat ZERO.

I have worked all my life and paid my dues to society, I have a mortgage of £720.00 a month plus other general bills but because my partner works 20 hours part time I am entitled to nothing.

How do the government expect anyone to survive on nothing? Money tree? I haven’t got one of them.

I just thought I’d add I have now found employment at 63 years of age - it just proves there are jobs there if you look. But is there any wonder people are struggling to live? My advice is stick Universal Credit where the sun don’t shine, it’s a useless exercise.

York resident, Name and address supplied

My inside knowledge on walnut whips

I REFER to Maurice Hall’s letter (September 16) about walnut whips. I see that I must expose my credentials.

In 1953, as a trainee production officer at W and M Duncan in Edinburgh I was part of a team working on the development of a Whipped Cream Walnut.

The method we came up with started with a silicone rubber plaque with 36 conical protuberances onto which a girl hand-piped a cone of specially tempered thick chocolate.

The plaque with the chocolate was then put in a cooler until the chocolate had set when the cones were removed, inverted and placed in a metal tray where another girl piped in the cream filling and placed the walnut half on top of the cream. A third girl then piped on the chocolate to form the base at which stage each sweet was turned back upright and placed on a waxed paper sheet. The finished product was packed for sale into boxes of 48.

When I finished my apprenticeship I became the production officer in charge of several hundred women making Whipped Cream Walnuts. Eventually I became the Duncan marketing manager responsible for revamping and renaming the product after the imposition of Purchase Tax.

Any product produced after the removal to York and Halifax was but a poor imitation of the original 50 tons a week line made in Edinburgh and the effect on the local female employment scene was devastating.

A V Martin, Westfield Close, Wigginton, York

Bus is a winner for cheaper travel

LOOKING at the article on the cost of travelling (The Press, September 12), if one wishes to travel on the cheap a bus is the answer.

It may take a little longer, but that’s the answer.

The main costs of train travel are due to the need to maintain the infrastructure of the railways, which constantly needs upgrading.

Keith Chapman, Custance Walk, York