Housing and Council Tax Benefits

Backdating

About backdating

In special circumstances, we may be able to backdate your claim. This means that we can pay you benefit from an earlier date than you have claimed from.

To qualify for backdating, you must be able to show that:

You had a good reason for not claiming benefit earlier; and
Your reason or reasons for not claiming earlier lasted until you actually made your claim (for example, if you were in hospital and made a claim as soon as possible after leaving hospital, we would treat this as continuous good cause)

We will usually need to see proof of the things you tell us about. For example, in the situation above, we would need to see a letter from the hospital or your doctor confirming your illness and the length of time you were in hospital.

Your request must be in writing and this can be done either by:

Filling in the section on the claim form that has the heading 'Backdating'
Writing to us
calling into our office where you can get help to write a request for backdating. We will not tell you what to write you must tell us what you want us to write; or
Getting independent advice and help from various agencies. We have given a list of Local Service Addresses

Once we receive your request to backdate your claim we: