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Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook

CPAG Handbook cover 2013/14

Price £45   1,798 pages  ISBN 978 1 906076 73 3

This 15th edition published late April 2013. CPAG Rights members will each receive one copy, plus 5 percent discount on CPAG training and much more.

Written for claimants and their advisers, CPAG’s annually updated Handbook is the definitive guide to all welfare benefits and tax credits. The new edition has been expanded to cover the sweeping changes to the benefit system taking place in 2013/14. This is the year when you will need the Handbook by your side at all times!

It includes extensive information on universal credit, including how to calculate income and capital, housing costs and the maximum amount. 

Also included this year are full details on personal independence payment, the new benefit cap and rent restrictions. It has improved information on claiming and getting paid, and more tactical information to help users navigate the complexities of the system and enforce their rights under the new claimant responsibilities and sanctions regime.

The Handbook explains:

  • Which benefits and tax credits you can claim.
  • How and when the new universal credit will affect you.
  • Work-related requirements you must meet, and what happens to your benefit if you do not comply.
  • How your disability or health is assessed for employment and support allowance and the new personal independence payment.
  • When your benefits may be restricted by the new benefit cap or ‘bedroom tax’.
  • How to challenge a decision, and what to do if you have been overpaid or accused of fraud.

The Handbook is fully indexed and cross-referenced to law, regulations, official guidance, and court, Upper Tribunal and commissioners’ decisions. It is supplied to all Citizens Advice Bureaux, and is used by advisers, local authority staff and lawyers, as well as by claimants.

Bimonthly updates to the Handbook are published in the Welfare Rights Bulletin.

Reviews

'The advisers’ bible… The most comprehensive and user-friendly publication in the field of welfare benefits… An absolute must for welfare rights workers as well as those giving general advice' THE ADVISER (CITIZENS ADVICE)

‘So easy to follow...a godsend. Many of us would be lost without (it)’ A CLAIMANT

‘Excellent’ THE MIRROR

‘The most complete guides to social security benefits’ SUNDAY TIMES

'The best value in publishing ... The reference manual of choice for professional advisers. Even tribunal chairmen can be seen referring to it in preference to the more technical manuals they are supplied with … All legal aid firms must have this book’ SOLICITORS JOURNAL

'Simply the best and most vital guide … that you can buy' COMMUNITY CARE

'Written with unsurpassed clarity…essential' – FAMILY LAW

'The one thing that can be relied on in this ever changing world of welfare is CPAG’s indispensable handbook… the adviser’s bible' – THE ADVISER (Citizens Advice)