Richard Bacon MP - Member of Parliament for South Norfolk

Home
Local News
Parliament
Articles
Speeches
Richard
Media
South Norfolk
Contact

RSS

MP calls for clearer benefit leaflets

Benefit leaflets require an above
average reading ability to
understand, a new report finds

SOUTH NORFOLK MP Richard Bacon has called on the Department for Work and Pensions to think more carefully when designing its benefit information, after a new report has found that the department's most important leaflets required a reading age higher than the national average to understand.

Mr Bacon, a member of the Commons public accounts committee, was speaking as the National Audit Office (NAO) published its report on the use of leaflets to communicate with benefit claimants.

The NAO tested 13 leaflets put out by the Department for Work and Pensions and found that all of them required a reading age higher than the national average. The Government currently estimates that 56 per cent of the population have literacy skills that would not be sufficient to gain GCSE passes of grades A, B or C.

Mr Bacon said today:

"How government departments communicate with the public is very important. Too often, there are complex forms, poorly designed leaflets and confusing advice. The situation is not helped by poor literacy levels amongst those who most need the help of the benefits system".

"If benefit leaflets cannot be understood by their target audience, then people will not get the information they need to make important choices about their lives. The English language is a wonderful tool for communication but it must be used properly. I hope to see an improvement in the design of government forms and leaflets soon".

24 January 2006

See also:

NAO REPORT: Using leaflets to communicate with the public

PARLIAMENT: MP calls for clearer benefit leaflets - Jan '07

PARLIAMENT: Break the benefits cycle, urges MP

Printable
Version

Go to Top

Back to
Parliament