Editorial policy

Source hierarchy

1. Official government and service pages (including gov.ie, GOV.UK, and NI Direct)
2. Public bodies and agencies
3. Citizens Information and trusted public guidance
4. Programme providers

Country and nation-specific differences

Eligibility rules, rates, application routes, and local authority delivery can differ across Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We handle this by labelling geography clearly on each page, checking nation-specific primary sources, and avoiding cross-country assumptions when rules diverge.

UK rollout and indexing status

UK pages are being expanded in stages. Until a UK page meets our completeness standard (primary source coverage, scope notes, and review checks), it remains noindex.

Review schedule

We review core guidance pages on a rolling schedule and re-check pages sooner when official criteria, rates, deadlines, or application routes change.

Last reviewed fields

Where available, pages include a last reviewed date and source references so readers can see when content was most recently checked.

How corrections are handled

When a correction is reported, we verify against primary sources, update affected content, and align related pages where the same detail appears.

What happens when official sources change

If official information conflicts with our published guidance, we treat official sources as authoritative and update or temporarily qualify affected content until verification is complete.

Last reviewed: 2026-05-05