Many too proud to ask for benefits

Well it's mostly we old pensioners that are using land lines, it is what we are used to. We don't have a mobile as they're too dear to use anyway.

One deputy said if you can't manage, the supplementary might help.

I have listened to all the phone-ins and read all the Open Lines letters in the Press (very good too), but no deputy or States member has mentioned the lifeline system for people living alone – it is a pendant alarm which is worn on the neck at all times so if we fall or feel ill, we can press the red button and we will get help.

Well, this costs £5 a month. All my friends are over 75. I'm 89, which means we all were born before the war.

Yes, we could ask for supplementary benefit, but for all our lives we have had to manage as there was no money given to any families as there wasn't supplementary in our day (before the war) and no children's allowance either.

We all helped each other, friends or family. If our parents had four or more children, no money was given, so we all learned to manage.

We are proud now of how we lived and in 1940 the worst-off people were the ones who stayed here and starved, and we who left when told it was best to leave left our homes and lost, mostly because our parents had to leave to find the children and then find empty houses.

No money was ever given in the UK either, everybody had to work at 18, go in uniform to fight for our islands, then back five-and-a-half years later to dear Guernsey.

The States need to tell all people how much they get and how much they spend on drink, big homes and holidays (we don't).

I paid £44.25 for a 10-minute check up at the doctors to get the tablets I take (seven every day and two to four times a day).

We've had to give up our cars as it's too dear to run, so can't get out.

We don't want supplementary help – only to be treated the same.

Too many States houses are given to young girls, when it should be for families. Couples who work are having to keep these girls on supplementary. (I don't pay tax).

I agree with one letter writer who said they should be given vouchers instead of money.

Here is a breakdown of what I paid for in 2014:

Doctor (last week) £44.45 – supplementary: free

Doctor visit £116 – supplementary: free

Nurse for blood tests £8 – supplementary: free

Chiropodist £28 – supplementary: free

Dentures ? – supplementary: free

Spectacles ? – supplementary: free

States cleaner – once a week for one hour is £13.67; totals £54.68 per month

Hair cuts – free on supplementary??

We had to do two jobs for many years to be able to manage. We walked everywhere, had no pocket money, cars, etc.

We old Guernsey donkeys are stubborn but proud to be Guerns.

Name and address withheld.