As part of our collaboration with Yoosk, a website which puts people in touch with celebrities and important figures, we have already enabled Calderdale people to quiz weatherman Paul Hudson and Chief Superintendent Ian Levitt.
This latest venture saw you invited to submit questions on the Government's proposed benefits reform, aimed at getting more people off benefits and into work, to Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell
Questions flooded into the Courier website – www.halifaxtoday.co.uk – and now we have the answers from Mr Purnell. You can read all of these on our website now.
Purnell, MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, also spoke to the Courier about the reforms.
"The cost of the welfare state has escalated out of all proportion. So much so that we now have the unusual situation of a Labour administration about to enforce the most wide-ranging reforms proposed since 1942."
He said the Government has no choice but to try to reduce the amount it pays out in benefits because of national debts which have hit a record high and the huge effect of direct and indirect taxation.
"The fact is Britain cannot afford to continue underwriting the living expenses of millions of people who do not work."
The proposals, also backed by the Conservatives, will see all claimants assessed and stringent new rules introduced. Around 2.7 million people claiming incapacity benefit will have to undergo medical tests.
Mr Purnell added: "A large proportion of people will hail this as a victory for common sense. An end to the benefits-for-life culture, which has become a tightening noose around the nation's neck.
"The overhaul is necessary and long overdue. Getting tough with benefit cheats is an important step."
But he added that real help must be given to the long-term unemployed including education and job-seeking assistance, and that many people will still genuinely need handouts.
"This exercise must be robust without becoming a witch-hunt. Ministers must not lose sight of what our welfare state was designed for."
megan.featherstone@halifaxcourier.co.uk