Steve Grey, of Hill Park, Kellaton, Kingsbridge, writes:

I am someone who went through the care system in the 1970s and ’80s. I feel that the system that is stopping housing benefit for the under-21s is so unfair on children who have come through the care system, ie children’s homes etc, who have no family support through no fault of their own and who are often the victims of some kind of abuse.

The children under this ruling will now find themselves homeless when their care order expires at 18. They will not have had a stable childhood or school life and therefore can tend to have poor exam results and will struggle to get a job.

This ruling will go against so many children leaving the care system – the Government needs to look again at making a blanket ruling over housing benefit not being available to the under-21s.

Why should children who have ended up in the care ­system with no family now face the prospect of becoming homeless at 18? What sort of message is being sent out to all those poor kids in care?

I wrote a book and published it in 2015: at the end of the book I challenge the Government to take note of children coming through the care system and stop making them feel like criminals when they go to job centres.

I challenge Dr Sarah Wollaston and other MPs to get a copy of my book, Switch Back by Steve KS Grey, and take a really good look at what ­children go through in the care system, and how this housing benefit ruling can be so harmful to kids in care. There really ­cannot be a blanket rule.

The book addresses the ­failings of social services in care homes; the failure of the Government to make proper provisions for anyone who is unfortunate enough to come through the care system; the lack of support or aftercare; and how by our own misfortune we cannot get the required exam results to get good enough jobs to pay for accommodation.

And now, with the new ­ruling of no housing benefits for under-21s, I really wish MPs would see just how hard it is for children coming through the care system, only to be hit by a brick wall with the threat of homelessness, all through no fault of their own. This should not be allowed to happen.