Benefits.gov (formerly GovBenefits.gov) was launched by the U.S. Department of Labor in April 2002, as a website designed to provide American citizens with access to government benefit eligibility information. Benefits.gov helps citizens determine their potential eligibility for more than 1,000 government-funded benefit and assistance programs. Visitors can complete an on-line questionnaire, and Benefits.gov matches benefit programs with their needs and provides information on how to apply.
Benefits.gov includes information on a variety of benefit and assistance programs for veterans, seniors, students, teachers, children, people with disabilities, dependents, disaster victims, farmers, caregivers, job seekers, prospective homeowners, and more.
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Facts and figures
People served: over 220 million people (as of Aug 2024)
Referrals to partner agencies: 32 million
Average monthly visitors: 1.1 - 1.3 million
Benefits provided: over 1,100 (as of Aug 2024)
Shutdown
At the end of September 2024, the website was shut down and replaced by benefits subpages found on the websites USA.gov and USAGov en Español. This was a result of Executive Order 14058 by President Biden in 2021, which directed the General Services Administration to “develop a roadmap for a redesigned USA.gov website that aims to serve as a centralized, digital ‘Federal Front Door’ from which customers may navigate to all Government benefits, services, and programs, and features streamlined content, processes, and technologies that use human-centered design to meet customer needs, including consolidating content currently appearing on Benefits.gov, Grants.gov, and other appropriate websites [...]”
Key features include:
A centralized, singular, user-friendly location to access benefits information.
A search engine called Benefit Finder that helps users locate benefits programs and determine eligibility.
Category-based navigation organized by type and “life events”.
However, there was some opposition to the new design. The first Federal Chief Information Officer, Mark Forman, told Nextgov/FCW that “A big focus for the original design was finding what you needed within 3 clicks or less […] noting that he was skeptical of USA.gov's new focus on ‘life events’ as a way to organize parts of the website.”
Govloans.gov
Govloans.gov, the sister site of benefits.gov, was launched in 2004, and provides information about government loan programs. Govloans.gov features information about loans for:
Housing
Education
Agriculture
Small business
Veterans
Disaster relief