It doesn’t seem possible, but it’s now 20 years since we first created the Benefits and Work website.  We’d love to hear how far back your memories of the site go and what it means to you.

We first registered the domain name benefitsandwork.co.uk in August 2002, but it took us a while to build our initial website.  We did it ourselves using a programme called Microsoft Frontpage combined with an almost complete lack of technical knowledge.  And it showed.

The first record of the site being online is on the archive website The Wayback Machine on 6 October 2002. 

Back then we didn’t publish news, there was no newsletter and no forum.

But we did have guides to DLA, AA and incapacity benefit.

Many of the sites that we had links to on our home page have since disappeared. 

Benefits Now, which allowed you to assess yourself for AA and DLA has long gone.  

The DLA Group, a discussion forum for claimants, is also no more.

Lisson Grove Benefits Programme provides benefits calculation software that does still exist, but is due to reach the end of its life in March 2023.

Rightsnet, the site for welfare rights workers was already an old hand then and happily is still going strong.

Over that time many people have been involved with the site as volunteer moderators, writers, updaters, trainers, technical support and more.

And many more have become loyal subscribers, whose support is the only reason the site has survived for 20 years when so many others have disappeared.

So, we don’t suppose there’s anyone who remembers us from as far back as 2002 – we scarcely remember it ourselves.

But we’d love to hear from you in the comments below about how long you’ve been using the site and what part it has played in your life.

Comments

Write comments...
or post as a guest
People in conversation:
Loading comment... The comment will be refreshed after 00:00.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Tracey · 1 years ago
    Good morning just want to say thanks for all help information on filling in pip forms.  received a update on my claim and its gone through without me having to attend a interview what a relief and then having given me it for 10yrs previously was three yrs. So glad I found your website and paid for membership it has been so informative. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    naheegan · 1 years ago
    In 2005, after a catastrophic accident that left me unable to walk, I was faced with applying for Income Support and DLA. The process looked daunting, overwhelming, confusing, like writing a polished college thesis. I happened upon your site and was amazed that there was sound, useful and commonsense advice available to claimants like myself. Through the years, as I navigated the reassessments, the forms, the changes, the anxiety, your Guides, mods, and comments by other claimants helped me get the benefits I have been entitled to -every single time. It's a debt that I cannot ever repay, and my thanks will never be enough to express my gratitude. I have retired now, but do still read the papers' readers comments sections about DWP/claimant articles, and point claimants to the B&W at every opportunity.  Thank you, thank you 🙇
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    KD · 1 years ago
    I couldn't have got by without you
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Dora Shergold · 1 years ago
    This web site is solely responsible for my getting the benefit I am entitled to, I would have been helpless against the ridiculous assumptions made in my report, then later in the report those assumptions turned into facts, without this amazing site. 
    I have passed this site link on to many people in Health and social care, they are all very grateful. 
     
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    lesley · 1 years ago
    Thank you for all the support that you have given.  I also think it is reassuring to know that you are there for us with expert guidance on disability benefits.  I am one of the older members still on DLA and retain my membership to keep updated on any benefit changes.  I check in every day to read the forum and the news.  I have learned a lot.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    He-special · 1 years ago
    He-special are proud to have been professional members of Benefits and Work since 2011 - or at least that is the first email I have confirming that we are members! 

    Over the years we have helped many families with children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities to successfully claim various benefits, both for the children and the adults. 

    But my personal relationship with B&W goes back further to when someone from the CAB came out to help me fill out the DLA form on behalf of my son. I think it may have been around 15 years ago. I noticed that the guide she was using was originally from B&W. So I looked it up on the internet and joined as a personal member. 

    Congratulations on your first 20 years. And whilst I wish people didn't have to use your excellent guides, I hope that your next 20 years will be just as successful. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Patsy May · 2 years ago
    I am grateful for the help you have given to me and others.
    I thought I had been filling in my applications correctly but until I became a member I didn’t realise the 
    I sent not just the forms but over 90 extra pages of information.

  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    orchid2819 · 2 years ago
    I've been a member for seventeen years, since 2005. I cannot express to you how grateful I am for all the help (disability benefit guides) and moral support you have given me and so many others over the years. Congratulations on this milestone and may you continue for many years to come. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Alec · 2 years ago
    Well done for 20 years of invaluable help. Thank you again for all the information and support I have received as a member for 9 years
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Maggie · 2 years ago
    Your site has helped me enormously over the years. The last time I had to apply, I got full rate pip for 10 years!!
    Thankyou from the bottom of my heart. The money has paid for some help,without which I couldn't have survived.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    kefkat · 2 years ago
    I was searching the website for help in getting help with my now late husband DLA as it was then. I had helped others get theirs with no problem. I was struggling to sort my husband.

    That's when I came across your website in 2007 so 15 years ago. It is worth every penny I have paid for it over the years, with my own, my late husband, my late mom and Att.Allowance for her.

    I have helped independents with using your templates and resources. I
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Bella · 2 years ago
    A friend (another nurse. Although different circustances sent me a link to your site when I was too unwell to keep working. I joined and with help from the sample forms I did get ESA and PIP. Just waiting for answer to PIP renewal now I did the forms a year ago but not heard back yet, although have had texts saying they’re stilll clearning backlog.
    It’s definately the ways to word answers and how they affect me from your site as how I got my benefits first time about 2014
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Richard · 2 years ago
    I’m yet another ME/CFS sufferer the DWP wished to dismiss. I (barely ) survived Lymphoma in 1992 ,the hospital said I’d no chance, and I was left with fatigue and deafness that ended my hopes of continuing my successful furniture making business. The DHSS and ATOS crew lied, cheated and even injured me further before an appeal and several years of fighting put things and maintained things right. I have  been fighting for my rights with DWP from the get go and with your help from the outset to the time I retired and beyond. I used your guides and advice to get ESAconts, support group rating and latterly Attendance allowance. I have helped others esp.using your guides to restore a disabled mans PIP when it was wrongly stopped (I recorded the HCP interview and proved that the ‘doctor’ lied and behaved inappropriately). Your guides secured my parents AA. So thanks for being there for what seems like half my life and may you continue to press for a better system of benefits assessment and live a happy life. Cheers
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Ray · 2 years ago
    I have been a member almost from the beginning, and find it an invaluable resource. Well Done all involved. Ray Southampon UK
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    earthmum · 2 years ago
    I've been a member since 2014 - 8 years of thankful relief from the stress of previously not knowing what I was doing, and struggling with DWP paperwork. 
    I was diagnosed with ME/CFS in 2000, having been ill with it since 1994/5, and struggling financially for so long, not only against the DWP but also the medical establishment who wished patients like me didn't exist, always trying to sweep us under the carpet and ignore us. 
    Benefits and Work, and Holly and Steve, have been my guardian angels in my battles with the DWP, and I can never thank them enough. I wish I had found them years earlier, my life could have been so much better.
    Thank you both from the bottom of my heart for your dedication and help.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Beverly · 2 years ago
    I have been a member well over 10 years and will always be grateful for the income I have received thanks to Works and Benefits  
    I am now a Pensioner but will continue to be a member to support this wonderful help Work and Pensions work tirelessly to provide for people like myself who would be losing out to the DWP
    ''CONGRATULATIONS''  and Many Thanks  

  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Victoria Ryan · 2 years ago
    I can honestly say that you have been fabulous very informative your a must when it comes to information might I add the right and fair information it’s a shame you don’t run the benefits system thank you for your help x
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    pusscatsmum · 2 years ago
    thank you for always being there for  us, providing reassurance, advice and assistance at all times.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Christine Stone · 2 years ago
    Earthbound angels with invisible wings. Thanks for all you do, and so selflessly too! 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    george · 2 years ago
    Ive only been a member for a few years previously i went through the system twice with appeals twice i was helped the second time by my daughter as she was older then , we went it alone and twice i went to the tribunal on my own and won twice though will say my tribunal was exactly like a court appearance the judge and doctor up high looking down at me ,the second tribunal the doctor asked where i had my hand splints from , i said my rheumatologist , he smirked at me , i didnt realise until later it was because they dont want to accept you bought them yourself , how humiliated i felt him smirking , he was horrible asking me questions firing them at me it was awful but i won my award thought they kept me in wragg instead of putting me in support group if i had been on here tben i maybe could of won the support group move . I feel calmer bring a member now as when they come for me again i will have this forum to help me this time so thank u so much for being here . I also alone applied for pip and got it first time then when covid hit they sent me a review form it came back same award but for four years ! It was a relief but i know they only did it so id accept the long award as i get the lowest rate for daily living and no mobility and only one point off enhanced for daily living ! Should fight it but didnt but hey may do at some point as getting bottom rate for esa and pip x

Free PIP, ESA & UC Updates!

Delivered Fortnightly

Over 110,000 claimants and professionals subscribe to the UK's leading source of benefits news.

 
iContact
We use cookies

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.