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 claim up to 52 weeks 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.

Your request must be in writing and this can be done either by:

• Filling in the section on the claim form that has the heading 'Backdating'
• Writing to us
• By calling into the office where you can get help to write a request for backdating. You must tell us what to write and we can write it for you.
• Getting independent advice and help from various agencies. Click here for a list of their details and addresses.

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