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Summary: Unambiguously THE Definitive Guide To UK Benefits
Comment: The book is published by CPAG (Child Poverty Action Group www.cpag.org.uk) a campaigning organisation that has been working to improve the lot of the disabled and benefit claimants for many years. There is pretty well nothing they don't know about benefits. This book (updated and republished each year) distils all their knowledge and experience into a single volume. (The book is 1500 pages long but printed on thin paper so its only 3.5 cm thick.) Claimants can buy this book direct from CPAG for only £7-50.This book is unambiguously the best benefits book to buy. It is THE definitive guide to all the benefits and tax credits out there. Its coverage is not merely comprehensive, but complete - down to the level of citing which section/paragraph of which Bills/Acts of parliament give rise to all the various benefits' rules and regulations (the actual legal text of the bills etc is not included but CPAG do other books which do contain this information). Subjects covered include means tested and non-means tested benefits, health benefits, National Insurance Contributions, Job seekers' allowance, Maternity/Paternity benefits, Retirement Pensions, Social Fund Payments, Incapacity Benefit and detail on how the descriptors are applied by the DWP in determining fitness for work, Housing Benefit, Capital rules, Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit, back-dating, how to appeal DWP decisions, etc etc. For each subject covered all the complications, exceptions, and exceptions to the exceptions(!) are covered. In many ways its not an easy read, but given the complexity of the law and its interpretation this level of detail is really the only way the REALITY of the benefit system can be adequately explained. This level of essential detail is in sharp contrast to many of the (perhaps understandably) simplistic explanations found in most DWP leaflets. With the increasing number of Government pilot schemes and the massive complexity of the benefit system and the frequent changes made to it each year, it is really only with a book such as this that it becomes possible to properly understand what benefits are available, and the serious and long-lasting consequences that can follow from DWP decisions and from actions taken by claimants. In this regard, the book steers a tentatively pro-claimant course but with a touch of pro-DWP 'responsible stakeholder' too. In short, it is the only book on benefits that claimants, their friends and families will ever need (each year!). (CPAG (and Amazon!) also do a similar book on Paying for Care (Homes etc) which is also excellent - ISBN 1-901698-52-1).
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