The first of a two-part free April 2022 Updater Pack for the Big Book of Benefits and Mental Health 2021-23 is available now on our downloads page here .
This will be quickly followed by Part 2 on the same page, as we join up the work on that (and add some double checking) with our contribution to an updater for the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers. So:
- Part 1 is about the new benefits rates: It brings all the main pages with benefit rates (eg tables, example sums and calculation sheets) up to date with the April 2022 rates. We are very much hoping that if the suggestion of a further emergency uprating is taken up, that we will be forced to redo this in a couple of months.
- Part 2 will focus on other changes : Not many that aren’t already covered in the last Big Book, but still important as DWP returns to “business as usual” (how you deal with them, re-assessments etc) and restarts switch-overs to newer benefits e.g. the switch from Adult DLA to PIP (or now ADP in Scotland) and the slow start of “managed migration” to Universal Credit. And the latest on extra help with the “cost of living crisis” and growing fuel poverty.
You can download these two Update Packs for FREE!! and print them off. You may want to just keep them to refer to alongside your copy of the last edition of the Big Book, write changes into your copy or paste replacement pages over the top of the old pages.
The last edition of the Big Book was late 😦 , but as a silver lining, captured some important changes after April 2021 :-). So all the tips, practical tools and information about both the current system and changes ahead largely hold good. If you don’t yet have a copy, you can still buy one and use with these free Update Packs. If you already had a copy, these packs give you another year’s shelf life. Every little helps:-)
If you prefer to have all the text up to date on the page of your book, you can find out more and subscribe to the online edition here
Big Book of Benefits 