Monthly Archives: August 2015

The new edition of the Big Book of Benefits and Mental Health is selling like hotcakes! It is available from www.cpag.or.uk/bookshop/bbm. So order your copy now before they all go :-).

Inside its 400 pages, you will find, new for this year:

• Welfare reform changes – taking the summary of recent and forthcoming changes right up to the Election . As promised an update for the Summer Budget changes is available from our downloads page.

• Personal Independence Payment – updated story so far and top tips  , amendments related to some changes in the PIP guidance, as we prepare for the re-assessment of existing DLA claimants from October. And as challenges and appeals become more common, new suggestions on supporting evidence and a sample submission

• Universal Credit – latest developments on the timetable, top tips from the pilot areas, updated illustrations of the disability gap and new illustrations of the disabled worker gap.  And the strange world of surplus earnings rule that starts in April 2016.

• Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) – updated for recent case law and now includes page by page guidance for the ESA50/UC50 physical pages too

Alongside all that is new sit our usual chapters all revised and updated: Contents, Barriers to Benefits, Three Steps to Maximum Entitlement, Welfare Reform Changes Summary, The Sickness Route to Benefits (including page by page guides/sample pages to completing ESA50s, supporting letters, medicals), Benefits for Carers, Means-tested benefits in Working Age , Pension Credit, Tax Credits, The Social Fund, Universal Credit, Disability Benefits: AA, DLA and PIP, Mental Health Diagnoses and disability benefits, Help with Housing Costs, Benefits and Work,  Benefits in Hospital, Challenging Decisions and an easy glance 2015/6 Benefits rate chart.

Some older chapters have had to be left out, but are still available as free downloads from the downloads page, These will also give you an idea of the Big Book approach in the current chapters. You will also find a set of excerpts from this year’s Big Book and the promised Summer Budget update.

To order your copy – priced at £23 – ,by phone, online or via an order form,  please go the CPAG bookshop at www.cpag.or.uk/bookshop/bbm