This April, Benefits.gov marks a major milestone in celebrating 18 years of citizen service. Our mission of enabling citizens in need to find assistance programs is more crucial than ever. One of the longest-serving E-Government initiatives, Benefits.gov was launched by the U.S. Department of Labor in April 2002-- creating the official benefits website for the U.S. government. Our mission is to increase citizen access to benefit information while reducing the difficulty of interacting with the government.
Before Benefits.gov, citizens looking to access government benefit information had to search through a complicated maze of webpages, across many different agency websites. Navigating the path to government benefits was difficult and confusing: there was no easy-to-use, centralized source of benefits information to help people understand which programs they may be eligible for, or how to apply. Eighteen years later, millions of citizens have easy, online information on over 1,000 benefits across 16 federal agencies on Benefits.gov.
Over the past year, Benefits.gov has made improvements to the way citizens access government services online. In direct response to user feedback, we launched our redesigned Benefit Finder, a free and easy-to-use eligibility prescreening questionnaire to help determine which benefits you may be eligible to receive. The updated Benefit Finder features a modern design, intuitive navigation, and fewer questions so that citizens can more quickly find the assistance they need. More recently, Benefits.gov launched a new Help Center, guiding users to helping themselves, to provide a streamlined experience as citizens search for information on the site.
To keep citizens informed about government benefit programs, Benefits.gov also publishes helpful, timely news articles. To stay up-to-date on benefit program information, subscribe to the Compass Newsletter or follow Benefits.gov on Twitter and Facebook.