Welfare benefits handbook

Edited by Simon Osborne, Child Poverty Action Group, 94 White Lion St, London N1 9PF, 1,322 pages, paperback, £24.00 (£7.00 for individual claimants)

This is a new edition of a book which provides expert guidance for both claimants and their advisers. It is written by 14 authors, all specialists in welfare rights.

It lists the benefit rates to which people have been entitled since last April - both means-tested and non-means tested. It provides detailed chapters on the jobseeker's allowance, maternity pay, statutory sick pay, benefits for disabled people, retirement pensions, child benefit and more, together with special sections on income support and housing benefits.

It analyses the new rules and regulations recently introduced, and gives detailed information on how to claim and make an appeal.