Backdating
You can ask for your Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction to start from an earlier date than the date you made your claim. You’ll have to tell us the date you want to claim from and why you couldn’t claim earlier.
You’ll have to show good cause for not applying earlier. This could be because:
- you were ill, or
- you couldn’t manage your affairs, or
- you didn’t know you could claim because of your age, language or learning difficulties, and
- had no one to claim on your behalf
How far back we can backdate your Housing Benefit and or Council Tax Reduction claim
Working age
If you’re a women under 60, or a man under 65, you can get Housing Benefit backdated up to one month and Council Tax Reduction backdated up to six months from the date you claimed.
Pension Credit age
If you've reached Pension Credit qualifying age you can get Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction backdated up to 3 months from the date you claimed. You don’t need to show good cause for not claiming earlier.
Working age men 60 to 64
If you or your partner get Income Support, income based Jobseeker's Allowance or income related Employment and Support Allowance you can get Housing Benefit backdated for up to one month and Council Tax Reduction backdated for up to six months from the date you claimed.
If you get Pension Credit and your partner doesn’t get Income Support, income based Jobseeker's Allowance or income related Employment and Support Allowance you can get Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction backdated for up to 3 months from the date you claimed.
Getting your claim backdated
When we’ve looked at your request, we’ll let you know whether you’ve been successful. If you have, we’ll tell you how much Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction you’ll get. If we’ve decided that we can't backdate your claim, we'll tell you why. If you don't agree with our decision, you can appeal.
Page last updated: 24 October 2017
