FROM 1ST APRIL 2013 THERE WILL BE FURTHER CHANGES TO THE CURRENT WELFARE SYSTEM WHICH COULD AFFECT YOU. PLEASE SEE THE INFORMATION LEAFLET Benefit Changes - Welfare Reform Act 2012 AT THE SIDE OF THIS PAGE FOR DETAILS.

A backdate of Benefit is an award for a period before your claim was received where you did not receive Housing Benefit. You can write or e-mail us to ask to consider backdating your claim.

We must establish that there was good cause or good reason why you could not have claimed at an earlier date and you must been eligible for Housing and Benefit for the period the backdating will cover. You will also need to provide original proofs relating to the backdated period.

If you are of a pensionable age you could have your claim backdated for up to 3 months. If you are of working age your claim could be backdated up to 6 months.

What is good cause/good reason?

There may be many reasons why you could not have made a claim earlier. Below are some examples of what we can take into account:

• Illness or you were in hospital
• You had a family crisis
• You were unavoidably away from home
• You thought you didn’t need to claim - please tell us why
• You were advised not to claim -  please tell us who advised you
• You thought you were not allowed to claim or would not get benefit - please tell us why
• You didn’t understand you could claim, for example, due to your age, experience of the system, language difficulties, and difficulty in understanding documents.

To make an appointment to submit information to the Civic Centre you can phone us on 01685 725237.