Editorial Policy & Fact-Checking Standards
Last updated
This policy governs every guide published on this site. Its purpose is simple: when a page states an amount, a deadline, an eligibility rule, or a phone number, you should be able to trust it — and verify it yourself.
Sourcing standards
- Primary sources first. Program facts come from the NJ Division of Taxation, the Department of the Treasury, and enacted state law. Our master list is on the sources page, and each guide cites the specific sources it relies on.
- News reports are corroboration, not foundation. We may use reputable reporting to learn something changed, but we confirm against official material before publishing it.
- Uncertainty is labeled. Where the state hasn’t confirmed a date or amount, guides say “expected” or “based on prior seasons” rather than presenting projections as fact.
Fact-checking process
- Every factual claim in a draft is checked against a cited primary source.
- Numbers, dates, and phone numbers are re-verified separately before publication — these cause the most reader harm when wrong.
- Each page displays a last reviewed date. Guides are re-reviewed on a scheduled cycle, and immediately when the state announces program changes.
Corrections
When we get something wrong, we fix the page promptly, update its last-reviewed date, and — for errors that could have led a reader to act incorrectly (a wrong deadline, a wrong amount) — note the correction on the page. Report errors via the contact page; verified corrections take priority over all other work.
Independence and monetization
This site is free to read and is funded by display advertising. That funding buys nothing except the hosting bill:
- Advertisers have no say in what we publish. No advertiser sees a guide before it goes live, suggests a topic, reviews a conclusion, or is told when one changes. We accept no payment for coverage, no sponsored posts, and no affiliate commissions on anything we recommend.
- Ads are labeled and separated.Every unit carries a visible “Advertisement” label and sits in a fixed template position — below the answer a reader came for, never woven into it and never styled to resemble our own content. Nothing on this site is a disguised ad.
- Placement is not a judgement. We do not choose which advertisers appear; an ad network fills the slots. An ad appearing next to a guide is not an endorsement of it, and you should treat any ad claiming to process a New Jersey benefit with the same suspicion as an unsolicited text — see relief scams.
- Applying is always free. Every program we cover is free to apply for at nj.gov. We will never place a paid link where an official one belongs, and the official link is always the primary action on a status or apply page.
What data advertising involves — and, more importantly, what it can never reach — is set out in the privacy policy.
What we don’t publish
- Individual tax, legal, or financial advice.
- Speculation presented as fact.
- Anything that collects personal data — no application forms, no “check your eligibility by entering your SSN” widgets, nothing of the kind.
AI assistance disclosure
Drafting and research may use software tools, including AI assistance. Every published fact goes through the same human-owned verification against primary sources described above, and responsibility for accuracy rests with the editorial team, not the tools.