We very much welcome benefits stories and comments submitted by members. But there’s a few things we need to make clear.
You continue to own the copyright of anything you have written, but by submitting your story or comment you give us the right to edit, alter and publish your work both on this website and anywhere else at any time in the future.
When you submit any story or comment, please ensure that it is your own work and that you have not breached anyone else’s copyright by, for example, copying and pasting large chunks of their material. If you use material from somewhere else, please give the source, including a link where possible.
Sometimes we won’t publish a story because we are already covering the same item or because someone else has submitted a similar piece. We also won’t publish stories or comments that we think are offensive, defamatory, misleading or in any other way inappropriate. Our decision on this is final and we won’t enter into correspondence about why items haven’t been published.
If you have an idea for a more in-depth story, you are welcome to contact us in advance to find out if it is something we might be interested in publishing.
Story style guidelines
To increase the probability of your story being published, it’s worth trying to follow these guidelines.
Give your story a short headline that explains what it’s about.
Try to include the main issues – who, what, when, where, why – in the first few sentences.
Keep the story as short as you can.
Try to let the reader make up their own mind what they think about the issue rather than telling them that it’s ‘disgraceful’, ‘shameful’ or similar.
Avoid the use of terms like ‘liars’, ‘scum’ or ‘hypocrites’ – again, let the reader make up their own mind.
Always try to include a link to a source, so that readers can check the information for themselves.