Updated July 2012
How to use My toolkit
We have developed My toolkit to help you help pensioners be better off. It includes:
- details about Pension Credit to make sure you know everything that you need to know; and
- tools to help you explain what Pension Credit is to pensioners.
So, whether you want some quick information or some tools to help you talk to pensioners, you can find it in My toolkit.
Who is My toolkit for?
My toolkit is for anyone who works with pensioners. You can use it to help older people understand how they may get extra money every week.
How can you do this? By:
- building understanding in your organisation
- helping your customers to find out if they might be eligible for Pension Credit.
Once you’ve got the facts at your fingertips, you can encourage pensioners to find out if they’re eligible for Pension Credit.
What’s in My toolkit?
My toolkit contains:
- guides to help you understand Pension Credit so that you can explain it to pensioners
- a simple question and answer page about Pension Credit
- details of the common reasons why pensioners don’t claim Pension Credit and how you can challenge these
- ideas about setting up events to promote Pension Credit to pensioners
- examples of case studies and tools to help you make your own calculations
- guidance on how to deal with the Press
- useful contacts and websites.
We’ve even got a two minute toolkit for those of you who don’t much time to spend on learning about Pension Credit.
How to get the most out of My toolkit
There are three easy steps to getting the most out of the toolkit.
Step 1
Make sure you:
- get all the facts
- find out about Pension Credit and the other benefits available to pensioners
- know all about who can claim and how to claim.
Step 2
Know your audience. Ask the following questions:
- who are they?
- what do they do?
- what are they interested in?
- why don’t they claim benefits they are entitled to?
- are there any distinguishing features about the people missing out on extra money?
Step 3
Make the most of the resources on offer such as:
- choosing the right tools for the job
- engaging with the right people at the right time
- preparing your approach.