Backdating a Claim

If you qualify for housing benefit or council tax benefit we usually pay it from the Monday after we get your claim.

Sometimes we can pay benefit before the date you claim by up to 52 weeks, but there has to be a continuous good reason why your claim is late for the period you want benefit paid back to.

Who Can Claim

You can claim if you are entitled to housing or council tax benefit but you think your benefit should start on an earlier date because you have continuous good cause for not making a claim in time.

Examples of good cause may include the following:

• if you were ill and had no-one to make the claim for you.
• if you could not reasonably have been expected to know your rights, for example, where there have been changes in the law.
• if you were wrongly advised by an official organisation that you were not entitled to Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit.
• if you were unable to manage your affairs and did not have an ‘ appointee’ or someone to help you.

How to Claim

You should claim in writing as soon as you can, if you delay and you do not have good reason for the delay we may not be able to pay you backdated benefit.

You can always contact us if you are not sure and we will tell you what to do. Click on the How to contact us link on the left under Main Menu for more details.

You should tell us:

• the date you think your benefit should start
• the reason why you did not claim earlier

To download and print a backdate request form to fill in and return to us, click on the Backdate Request Form link at the bottom of this page under Downloadable Documents.

Local Housing Allowance

From 7 April 2008, the way housing benefit is calculated for some claimants will change. The new benefit will be called Local Housing Allowance (LHA).

If you rent a property from a private landlord you will be affected by the change if you either

• make a new claim for housing benefit
• currently claim housing benefit but move address
• have a break in your claim of at least one week

If you claim for a backdate after 7 April 2008 your claim will be not be affected by LHA if the date benefit starts is earlier than 7 April 2008.

For more details, click on the Local Housing Allowance link on the left under Main Menu.

What Happens When We Receive Your Backdate Claim Form

When we receive your backdate claim form, we will write to you if you need to provide more information. If we write to you, you should provide the information we ask for within one month of the date we asked for it.

We might ask you to give us information that you have not had to give us before, like proof of the reasons for your delay or medical records if you have been ill.

We will tell you in a letter within 14 days after we get all the details from you, how much benefit you will get. This letter is called a decision notification letter. This letter will tell you how we have worked out your benefit. You should read this letter carefully to make sure your benefit is correct.

The decision notification letter will tell you what to do if our decision is wrong or you do not agree with our decision.

How to Disagree With Our Decision

If you do not agree with our decision, you can either ask us to explain our decision, ask us to look at our decision again or you can appeal against our decision. You should contact us within one month of the date on the decision notification letter.

For more details, click on the Disagreeing With Our Decision link on the left under Main Menu.

Where to Find Out More Details

For answers to Frequently Asked Questions click on the link on the right under Do It Online.

For more details about housing and council tax benefits in English and other languages, click on the Benefit Leaflets link on the right under Useful Websites.

Where to Get Help

You can always contact us for help and advice. Click on the link on the left under Main Menu for more details about how to contact us.

For a helpful contact list, click on the link at the bottom of the page under Downloadable Documents.

How to Comment on Our Service

You should contact us. We would like to know what you think about this website, or about the service we provide to you. Click on the How to contact us link on the left under Main Menu for more details or email us benefits.service@islington.gov.uk