Backdated claims

If there has been a reason which stopped or delayed you applying for Housing or Council Tax Benefit you can ask for your claim to be 'backdated' so that it starts from an earlier date.

The Start Date of Your Benefit Claim

Under Housing and Council Tax Benefit law you must make your claim for benefit in writing, either on a benefits application form or by letter. Normally we will start your claim from the Monday after we receive your application form or letter. It is therefore very important that you get your application form or letter to us as soon as possible because it affects the date your benefit claim will start from. If you have contacted us for an application form, you will have one month to return the form and evidence to us.

The Rules on Backdating Benefit

If you are of pensionable age, we can go back three months from your date of claim. We should do this automatically, but we may need to ask you for earlier income or savings details.

If you are working age, which means under 60, or if you are male and aged 60-64 and not claiming state pension credits, and there is a reason why you were unable to apply for your benefit earlier, you can ask for backdated benefits.

Claims can only be backdated if you can show 'good cause' for failing to claim at the correct time, and throughout the backdated period. You need to tell us about what prevented you from claiming at the correct time.

We can onlybackdate a claim for a maximum of six months from the date of your claim for backdated benefit. In order for a claim to be backdated we must be satisfied that:

you have shown good cause for failing to claim earlier and
that good cause existed continuously during the period for which backdating is being requested

We must be satisfied that your circumstances during this time were such that any reasonable person of your age and experience would also have failed to claim benefit. We must take account of all the facts of your case.

Some examples of when you may have 'good cause' are:

if you did not immediately claim benefit after leaving hospital
if you were ill and had no-one to make a claim on your behalf
if you did not understand that you could claim benefit perhaps because of age, inexperience or language difficulties
if you have suffered a recent family bereavement

If we are unable to backdate your claim, or you disagree with the start date of your claim, you can appeal against the decision.

From 6th October 2008 the rules concerning backdating changed. The above information is based on the new rules. If your claim was made before the rules changed, we may be able to consider backdating your claim for up to 12 months .

Please send your letter to :-

Benefits
East Renfrewshire Council
211 Main Street
Barrhead
G78 1SY

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I claim backdated council tax and housing benefit?
A: You must apply to us in writing if you want your housing or council tax benefit backdated. Depending on what you tell us, we will ask for supporting evidence, such as a letter from your doctor if you are/were ill. We also look at things like your health, any family problems you have had and language problems (for example, if English is not your first language). If you forgot to claim, or didn’t realise you could claim, these would not be good reasons. We can only backdate your benefit if your reason(s) for not claiming lasted until you did claim.