Sometimes we can pay Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit for a period before you made a claim.
You must prove "good cause" for not claiming when you should have. We treat every claim on its own merits. Some examples of 'good cause' are:
- Being misled by official information, either from us or the Department for Works and Pensions
- Not reasonably being expected to understand the regulations due to age, illiteracy or language problems
You must claim in writing. You can either write to us or complete a backdate request form that is available from your local Housing Benefit Office.
We may ask you to provide evidence to support your request for backdated benefit.
If you are unhappy with our decision regarding your backdate request, you can write to us asking to look at our decision again. You must do this giving reasons on why you disagree with this decision.
For further information regarding this, please see appeals or contact us direct.
From October 2008 the rules governing the backdating of housing and council tax benefit will be changing for both working age claimants and pension age claimants. The maxmium period that it can be backdated for will change from 52 weeks to 3 months.
