WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Labor Department yesterday officially launched GovBenefits.gov, a Web site designed to simplify access to information about government aid and other benefit programs, the Washington Post reported.
Deputy Labor Secretary D. Cameron Findlay said GovBenefits.gov, which tries to avoid “bureaucratese,” aims to provide information and links to programs on a person-by-person basis. Users enter the site and check boxes indicating, for example, that they are unemployed or the victim of a disaster. A series of yes-or-no questions about the situation follows, and then the site produces a list of government programs and benefits for which the user may be eligible, with contact information for each program. Even though a link to a particular program may be produced by a search, that does not guarantee the user eligibility for the program, Findlay said.
The site does not require a user to disclose his or her name, Social Security number or other personal identifying information.
Although the site initially provides links to only 55 assistance programs, Labor and the Office of Management and Budget, which jointly created the project, intend to expand the site’s resources by 30 to 40 programs a month, culminating in links to 300 programs.
The site cost $1 million to set up, according to OMB Associate Director Mark Forman. Officials say it is the first site launched by the administration since President Bush included a directive for improving e-government in his February budget submission to Congress.
Although GovBenefits.gov provides links to several federal departments, Labor provided most of the personnel for its design and upkeep. Other e-government projects are being handled by other departments, Findlay said.
“We hope that this will be a model for future e-government initiatives,” Forman said. Patricia McGinnis, chief executive of the Council for Excellence in Government, lauded the site’s debut as “a very good first step.” She said GovBenefits.gov tackles the “very tough” problem of navigating the multitude of federal assistance programs. She said the next steps should be to include state and local programs in the site’s database and to allow users to apply for the benefits online.
Findlay said plans are being made to link state- and local-level programs to the site.