SIR – Heather Grinter says asylum seekers are hard done by (Letters, May 1). She says they’re given basic housing, and 30 per cent less money than people on benefits.

I don’t agree. If she stands outside the UK border agency on Kirkstall Road where I live, she will see asylum seekers come out with mobile phones stuck to their ears.

There are pregnant women pushing prams, young men wearing designer clothes, and smoking king size cigarettes and asylum seekers getting dropped off in taxis.

These people are not hard done by. It is people like me who can’t find a job after being made redundant.

I can’t afford a mobile phone and I can’t afford to smoke, and no, Heather, I am not BNP and never will be. You have a lot to learn about life.

P Turner, Haddon Road, Kirkstall, Leeds