Chancellor Rishi Sunak was criticised last week for signalling a possible end to the triple lock on state pensions and for defending the ending of the £20 uplift to Universal Credit which was introduced during the pandemic I WOULD like to support and add to L McGregor’s letter on poverty (July 9) with a personal story. My dad was born in a tenement in the Gorbals in 1922 and my mum in one in Partick a few years later. I suppose you could describe them as “poor but smart” but by dint of personal effort after serving in the Royal Engineers during the Second World War, Dad became a qualified mechanical engineer. Together they raised a family of six kids, Dad was always employed and during our formative years Mum was a full-time housewife and mother. Money was always tight; I vividly remember collecting scrap lead pipes from the house we were renovating ourselves to trade for cash to feed us one weekend as we were skint. We all worked; I had a paper round while still at primary school and “pumped gas” in petrol stations as soon as my age allowed while at Dumfries Academy. My summer “holidays” while at university were spent labouring on building sites and in garage forecourts.