Jo Abel in the letter Prices in the UK and Malta (TMID, 23 November), goes a long way to explain that in Malta things are better than in the UK. She does so with special reference to the salaries that are paid in her corner of the world – Cornwall – and Malta, and then goes deeper into what the people in the UK have to pay for services and items.

Well, in Malta we must say that today many families cannot cope with two salaries, let alone one. Today, many families have had to resort to either having the husband work a part-time job to be able to make ends meet, or else the wife has to work to be able to afford a decent life for her family.

Sometimes this is not enough either.

Prices continue to rise from one week to the other, while wages are basically stuck except for the little cost-of-living adjustment made every year. Those who are lucky to have a collective agreement will have something extra every year, but this sometimes is too little to improve matters much.

I believe that many families are living beyond their means these days. Many are in debt too and it is hard for them to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

S. Mifsud

Birkirkara