Paying Benefit earlier than the date you have claimed from
Normally your Benefit starts from the Monday after your claim is
received by either The Job Centre or the Benefits Office.
In special circumstances, we may be able to backdate your claim.
This means that we can pay you benefit from an earlier date than
the date you have put your claim form in.
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.
By law, we can only backdate a standard claim for up to 6 months
from the date we receive your request for backdating. You must
clearly give the period you would like us to consider backdating
your claim to cover.
If you are 60+ we can only backdate 3 months. However men aged
between 60 and 64 who are in receipt of Income Support or Job
Seekers Allowance (Income Based) or their partner is can have their
claim backdated 6 months. If they are in receipt of Pension Credit
it can only be backdated 3 months.
Your request must be in writing and this can be done either
by:
Once we receive your request to backdate your claim we:
- Will make a decision as soon as possible
- Notify you of our decision
- Give you your appeal rights when we
notify you