§ 58. Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what plans he has for improving the range, quality and availability of public information about social service benefits.
§ Sir K. JosephMy Department is seeking to improve public awareness of social benefits in two ways. First, campaigns based on newspaper advertising, thousands of personal letters and direct approach through voluntary organisations are, where appropriate, aimed at specific groups, to tell them of their rights and encourage them to take up benefits. These methods were used to reach the very elderly who recently became entitled to State pensions for the first time. There will be a similar campaign to an even larger range of official and voluntary organisations in 1971 for family income supplements.
Secondly, the social security leaflets will be revised and wherever possible simplified. 68W There are nearly 150 of these leaflets and over 19 million copies are distributed each year through local security offices, post offices and voluntary organisations.