If you qualify for Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit (or both), we usually pay it from the Monday after we get your claim form.
Sometimes we can pay benefit before the date you claim. This is called ‘backdating’ your claim. The law says that we can backdate a claim for up to three months if you are aged 60 or over, as long as you qualify for benefit for the whole of that time. If you are aged under 60, the law says we can consider backdating for up to six months, as long as you qualify for benefit for the whole of that time. However, there has to be a good reason why your claim is late. This is known as ‘good cause’. Good cause must be continuous for the period you want benefit backdated for.
What do you mean by ‘good cause’?
Good cause is something that would probably cause a reasonable person to act in a certain way. We expect you to take reasonable steps to make sure you understand what your rights are, but we do not always expect you to understand public systems and paperwork. Here are
examples of things that we may consider ‘good cause’, but this is not a full list.
• If you are ill and have no one to make the claim for you.
• If we could not have expected you to know your rights, for example, if the law has changed.
If you did not understand that you could claim because:
• of your age;
• you are not used to making claims;
• you have language difficulties;
• you find it difficult to understand technical documents; or
• of some other reason.
• If an official organisation wrongly told you that you were not entitled to Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit (or both).
• If you were not able to manage your affairs and you did not have an ‘appointee’ or someone to help you. (An appointee is someone who you choose to act on your behalf.)
Examples of when we may backdate your benefit
• You were ill from January to March, and only claimed benefit in March when you were better.
• You hadn’t been able to claim before March because you had no one to act for you. In these cases, we would consider backdating your benefit to January, depending how severe your illness was.
Examples of when we cannot backdate your benefit
• If you were ill from January to March and had no one to act for you, but you did not claim until May, we would not be able to backdate your claim to January. We would only pay your benefit from May because ‘good cause’ did not continue from January to May.
What should I do if I think I have ‘good cause’ for my late claim?
If you think you have ‘good cause’ for making a late claim, you should:
- make sure you fill in a claim form for the period you are claiming for and give us proof of your income as soon as possible; and
- send us the claim form and a letter asking us to backdate your claim.
You need to tell us the period you want your benefit backdated for, and give us full details of why your claim is late. We will then consider whether we can backdate your benefit.
What happens next?
We will decide whether your reasons are good enough to backdate your benefit. We will try to write to you within two weeks and tell you our decision. If we decide not to backdate your benefit, we will tell you why.
Can I appeal?
We may feel your reasons are not good enough to backdate your benefit. If you do not agree with our decision, you can ask us to look at it again or you can appeal against it. You must write to us within one month of getting our decision. Your letter should say why you are not satisfied. Our booklet ‘Benefit Appeals’ gives you more information about the appeals process.
If you need any help or more advice about backdating, please get in touch with us. Our contact details are at the bottom of this page. You should continue to pay your
Council Tax or rent while we are considering backdating your claim.