Pensioner Pamphlet

Hmmm... just got another quote: £877 for black and white.

I know we have lots of money at the moment, but that's still a lot of money to spend. I guess it might be worth it if you think printing that many will have a huge effect. Do you not think that number is a bit high? Will we even be able to distribute that amount?

£250 sounds like a bargain compared to the others. I guess I'm for it if everyone else is.

I reckon we'll be able raise about 150+ to cover the costs at the gig in February. We can do another one a little after. If we do a few bars at parties we should raise the other £100.

Progress so far:

The cover is rough as a badgers arse, so feel free to make suggestions for blurb/design. The plan is to cover benefits as comprehensively as possible: some of the focus however, after my reading I think be about encouragement to claim on the main benefits - I think there is a cutoff point where too much information is offputting to claim. I think it is worth having a page or two on Warm Front and similar schemes.

I welcome any suggestions and criticisms. I'm planning to do the bulk of the work on this on the 22nd Nov so please look at it and comment promptly.

There is a layout and basic design (I knew you'd be thrilled)

General Advice[/] (This is based on research done by the DWP - ways to encourage claiming)

General Advice

* If in doubt, claim. You have nothing to lose and potentially a raise in living standards to gain. You will not be worse off for making a claim.

* Claim now. Most benefits allow backdating, but it is often a lot of hassle or impossible to get this money. So apply as soon as you can.

* It will be most likely be easier to make a claim than you think

* Don’t assume you’re ineligible

* The information in this booklet is only basic, the benefits system is much more complex than it should be. However there is help available in making a claim, both from advisers when you make a claim, and from independent charities and organisations.

[b]One benefit covered: (This will be expanded if there is space to include more examples) This currently covers one page, as I'm keeping text size at 12 point.

Pension Credit
Who’s entitled?
Anyone over the age of 60 with an income below £114.05 if they’re single, or under £174.05 if they have live with someone. Note: this income is based not on your total income, but on specific parts of it. Things counted towards the total include: pensions, earnings, some benefits (such as carer’s allowance). Things not counted include: Attendant’s Allowance, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit & Disability Living Allowance.

What do I get?
Pension Credit will increase your income to a minimum of £114.05 a week if you’re single or £174.05 if you have a partner.
Over 65s may also be entitled to up to an additional £17.88 a week if you’re single or £23.58 a week if you have a partner (this is based on savings you’ve made). You can also backdate your claim, which may mean that you get a lump sum in addition to the weekly increase in income.

Examples:
Someone on a basic state pension of £84.25 would be entitled to an extra £29.80 a week.

How to apply:
You can claim by phone (free) by calling 0800 99 1234, or by textphone on 0800 169 0133 (8.00am to 8.00pm Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 1.00pm Saturday). You can fill in the forms you need over the phone with the help of the advisor.

You can also ask for someone from the Department of Work and Pensions to visit you in person to talk through any claim and to see if you are eligible.

You can claim Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit at the same time.

saiiii - we cant really hang on for a few weeks- the weathers cold here already! ( in the grim north as we are)and we need to distribute 5000 of the damn things before people disappear for xmas if poss.
however we do see this as an ongoing campaign so no reason we cant do something else with the new information later.... oh the joys of knowing there'll always be something to spend all our time campaigning about... that queens speech could keep activism in business for about the next 50 years by itself! grrrr.

rich- i like the layout, but im not sure about having our campaign name as the title...? simply because people might expect that its about how to organise, or why people should agitate about it, rather than how to claim benefits. i know the subtitle makes it clearer, but it doesnt say guide to claiming cold-related benefits. do you think it needs to? i dont know. i just think it should be unmuddleable!

small point- is 'end fuel poverty campaign' all in bold or not? two differernt bolds.....

I'm mainly focusing on the content at the moment, which is taxing me the most. But here is what an info page looks like:

(That's an A5 page).

I just wanted to keep it simple - nothing too jazzy. If anything in that design leaps out at you Saai then say! You have every right to make full blown bitchy comments!

First impressions:

Make the headline on all inside pages much smaller, Pension credit can be half that size. A diferent font (franklin gothic looks alright in that styling) would be good.

If under the same heading, avoid putting in line breaks, just indent new para and maybe bullet point if needed (that'd be 'n' on wingdings I think). Hopefully the space saved will allow you to up the size of the body text font - this is very important if you're going to be giving it to pensioners.

If you're going to have the page number on the last line parallel to text, circle it or somethign to make it clear it's not just a typo.

Well done, looks really good! Do you think if under "How to apply" you've done the phone number in bold, it's a bit odd to not do the text phone number in bold? Have you got a benefits leaflet from the job cantre - maybe copy them on things like that?

Here is the new cover. Comments?

Actually yuou can clear a hell of a lot of space by shortening 'Warm Fronts' header to one line:

'Heating grants and rebates' maybe? Again getting rid of the indent'll help there I thnk

It might just be me, but for some reason "cold related advice" sounds weird...and so does "Also includes...". I'm probably just nitpicking, but i reckon "Including" sounds better, and maybe something else instead of cold related (dunno what tho) - it makes me think it's gonna be about olbas oil and tissues. That wasn't very helpful was it, sorry

Hey people, only a very small contribution but how about intead of "Also includes information on grants and cold related advice"...could be...."includes/including information on grants and other (financial?) advice for winter"
Sorry i haven't been part of the above chat!
PAk cHoi

Its more commonly known as ketts rebellion. There's a page on wiki but its a bit rubbish. I'd write something but i've got essays to do.
If you want better material, JSTOR has online access to most historical (and any other subject) journals.
Username: ueam0469556
Password: pas060786
Its pretty straightforward to search.
'Past & present', 'the historical journal', 'history', 'transactions of the royal society' should all have articles.
Anyone feel free to use the password, its a great resource.

the distribution process has begun in earnest!
so if anyone else has free time over xmas and can do some distribution, not necessarily in norwich but around as well, it would be great if they could contact us. it isnt an unpleasant thing to spend a few hours doing, and its worth it! if ya want to help, email norwichanarchists@hotmail.com.
only 5,000 of them so get your collectors copy...

have a warm and safe midwinter!

It's on a pdf on our website, but it's in funny format - pages all over the place for ease of printing.

It's on the list!