With the economic crisis putting a lot of pressure on the average, low-income American family, many have started turning to government resources for help.
Unfortunately, the majority of Americans are still unaware of the many assistance opportunities available to them, and they only explore the ones they heard about previously, which are usually the most commonly used ones such as SSI, SNAP, Section 8, or some other federal assistance program.
With the help of the benefit finder website, Americans can gain access to a near-infinite resource map, giving them an insight into the thousands of different assistance programs the government has to offer, information on how to apply to those programs, and finally, the benefits they offer.
Keep reading to learn more about benefits finder and how you can fully utilize the website and all of its capabilities.
History
Originally established in 2002, the site was created as a way for Americans to learn more about the federal government programs available in their state, there being program summaries, accessibility data, and a detailed explanation of the application process.
This way, citizens were given free access to info on hundreds of programs available at the time, ranging from food stamps to home upgrade loans, and with BenefitsFinder, all of these programs suddenly became much easier for the average American to understand.
Ever since it was launched, the site has been visited by more than 50 million unique visitors, and in the 21 years it’s been around, several awards were given to the founders.
10 years after the initial release, BenefitsFinder added a mobile version to the website, giving their users access to the database on the go, and several years later, a Spanish version was implemented to make the process easier for non-English speakers.
Finding the benefits for you
The site works in a way that allows you to find benefits in one of two ways.
You can use their benefit finder tool, which will request different information about your income level, family size, and other personal info in order to find the best assistance program out there for your circumstances.
This will save you dozens of hours of browsing the options available to you and will find the most optimal assistance for your preferences.
On the other hand, you can browse the benefits on your own, as finding something that may be sub-optimal at first may eventually turn out to have been the better option in the long run.
At the end of the day, an algorithm can figure out what your needs are based on the information you submitted, but you still have your own choice to make, and sometimes, finding the right program for yourself is the right answer.
The advantages
One of the main advantages BenefitsFinder has to offer is the fact that it’s ridiculously easy to navigate, making it possible for the least tech-savvy users to successfully use the search tool.
This is particularly true for mobile users, as it’s been found that lower-income residents tend to not have access to a computer, which is why a lot of work was put into making the mobile version of the website accessible and easy to understand for most users.
Of course, there’s still the issue of there only being support for English and Spanish speakers, meaning that the rest will have to wait a couple of years before other languages are implemented.
Another great thing the BenefitFinder is capable of is detecting certain characteristics that the user wouldn’t normally be able to discern on their own based on the info they provided, which opens up additional possibilities for the assistance programs available to them.
The downsides
Even though it provides detailed information on the many programs the federal government has to offer, BenefitFinder doesn’t exactly allow the user to apply to the program directly from their website.
This means that after you’ve found the program best suited for your needs and carefully examined the application process, you’ll have to direct yourself to that program’s official website or call their office in order to apply.
This may prove to be much more difficult for certain users with cognitive disabilities, as it requires them to repeat the entire process once more and find the program after being given the information as to how it works and what they’ll need to apply.
Bottom line
Without BenefitsFinder, most government assistance programs would go unnoticed, and the website being around for over 2 decades has been a godsend for low-income American families.
By utilizing the Benefits Finder tool, Americans can gain access to a huge resource of information on the many government programs out there and what they can do to obtain eligibility for them.
The tool is easy enough to use for anyone to understand it fully within a few minutes, and if you use it correctly, help may just be around the corner.
