How we report, and what we refuse to do
Every rule here is enforced by the system that builds the site, not by good intentions.
Every story carries a number and a source
No story publishes without a figure and a citation to where that figure came from — preferably the agency, the statute or the official bulletin rather than someone else's write-up of it. The source, and the date we retrieved it, appear on every page.
We label projections as projections
Much of what we cover is known in advance but not yet official: a COLA that is calculated from published inflation data, a premium the Trustees have projected, a tax bracket that moves with an index. We publish those early, because that is when the information is useful.
Every one of them is tagged projected and carries the date it becomes official. A projection presented as a confirmed figure is the fastest way to be wrong about someone's money, and we treat it as a serious error rather than a rounding issue.
Money and health stories get a named human review
Stories in Your Money and Your Coverage can change what somebody does about their income or their medical cover. Those sections require a named human reviewer before publication, and the reviewer appears on the page. The site will not build without it.
Numbers get re-checked on a schedule
A story with last year's figure is worse than no story. Every piece carries a review date, and where it depends on a value that changes — a COLA percentage, a premium, an allotment — it is flagged for re-checking the moment that value moves, not on a calendar reminder somebody has to remember.
We do not do outrage
No all-caps headlines, no "shocking", no "you won't believe". If a number is alarming, the number is enough. Writing designed to spike a click at the cost of the reader's trust is against the point of the publication.
We do not take sides
We report what a policy costs, not whether it should exist. Where the arguments about a decision are genuinely contested, we say that they are contested and leave the weighing to the reader. A story should read the same to people who voted differently.
We are not your advisor
Reckonwire explains what public decisions cost households. It does not give financial, legal, tax or medical advice. For your own situation, the right sources are a licensed professional or the agency that administers the programme.