Editorial policy

Benefit Day helps people understand when their benefits arrive, how much they'll be, and what they may be missing. Readers rely on these figures to plan their month, so accuracy comes before everything else.

Who writes and checks our content

Every article and tool is published under the name of Narender Chahal, Managing Director of Impeka Insights, who is responsible for what appears on the site. He researches and explains benefits; he isn't a lawyer, financial adviser or government official, and we don't describe him as one.

We use AI tools to help research, draft and check our pages and tools. Nothing is published until Narender has reviewed it and checked every fact against the official source.

Where our figures come from

We use official sources first: the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the IRS, the U.S. Treasury and the USDA. Every figure on the site links to its source. We use news reports only to point readers to what an official source has said, never in place of it.

Forecasts are labelled

Some figures, such as next year's cost-of-living adjustment, aren't known until an agency announces them. Until then, we show forecasts from named analysts, clearly labelled as forecasts, and replace them with the official figure on the day it's published.

Keeping figures up to date

Every figure is stored with the date it was last checked. Our system alerts us when an official announcement date passes or when a figure hasn't been checked for 60 days. Payment dates are calculated from the official rules, including weekends and federal holidays, and checked against the agencies' own calendars.

What we won't publish

• "Payment approved", "surprise bonus" or similar claims that aren't backed by an official announcement.
• Headlines that promise money readers aren't due.
• Offers to help with claims for a fee. For VA claims, we point readers to free VA-accredited representatives.

Advertising

We earn money from ads. Advertisers have no say in what we write, and ads are always kept apart from our tools and results.

Corrections

If we get something wrong, we fix it quickly and record the change on our corrections page. To report an error, email [email protected].