There are various ways to get benefit backdated or arrears. Some of them are outlined below. They apply to most benefits. Tax Credits often have different rules.
Remember - backdating has to be requested.
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Backdating claims | Interchanging claims | Reconsidering and changing an earlier decision | "linked benefit" backdating | Late appeal | Compensation payments
This is about backdating claims. See below for information about backdating existing awards.
Income Support and Jobseekers Allowance
can be backdated 1 month for administrative reasons; or 3 months for other specified reasons (e.g. difficulty in communicating, illness or disability).
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit
Rules for claims before 6 October 2008:
can be backdated for up to 12 months. People under 60 have to show good cause for delay in claiming. People 60+ (and not on IS or JSA-I) do not have to show any reason for delay.
From 6 October 2008:
Can be backdated for up to 3 months for people aged 60+ and no need to show any reason for delay in claiming. Can be backdated for up to 6 months for people aged under 60 but they must show good cause for delay.
Pension Credit
Rules before 6 October 2008:
Can be backdated for up to 52 weeks - without a need to show any reason.
From 6 October 2008:
Can be backdated for up to 3 months without a need to show any reason.
Bereavement benefits:
Bereavement payments should be claimed within 12 months of a spouse's death. Widowed Parents Allowance and Bereavement Allowance can be backdated 3 months without special reasons.
In special circumstances (e.g. unaware of spouse's death) backdating can go beyond these limits.
Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance
claims cannot be backdated.
Tax Credits
can be automatically backdated for 3 months without having to show special reasons. It is also possible to get Tax Credits backdated for up to 5 years but only if there was an official error on a decision.
See Tax Credit rules for more details.
Most other benefits
can be backdated for 3 months without showing special reasons.
Another way of getting claims backdated is if getting one benefit depends on qualifying for another. For example entitlement to Carers Allowance depends on another person getting DLA middle/highest care component or Attendance Allowance. These rules are explained under the "linked benefit" backdating rules.
This is another way of backdating benefits. If a person claimed the wrong benefit by mistake but is entitled to another benefit, their original claim can sometimes be treated as a claim for the right benefit. Not all benefits are interchangeable.
Here are the benefits which are interchangeable:-
- A claim for Widows/Bereavement Benefits may be treated as a claim for Retirement Pension and vice versa
- A claim for Income Support may be treated as a claim for Carers Allowance
- A claim for Attendance Allowance may be treated as a claim for Disability Living Allowance and vice versa
- A claim for Child Benefit may be treated as a claim for Guardians Allowance or Maternity Allowance and vice versa
- A claim for Incapacity Benefit may be treated as a claim for Maternity Allowance and vice versa
- From 27 October 2008 a claim for Employment and Support Allowance may be treated as a claim for Incapacity Benefit or Income Support (for incapacity) and vice versa
- From 27 October 2008 a claim for Employment and Support Allowance may be treated as a claim for Maternity Allowance and vice versa
- From 27 October 2008 a claim for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) can be treated as a claim for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) where SSP is refused and ESA is claimed within three months of the refusal
In addition, if a person (A) claims a benefit (other than child benefit) but is not entitled to it, the claim may be treated as a claim by someone else for an increase of their benefit for person (A). If a person claims an increase of benefit for an adult dependent but is not entitled to it, the claim may be treated as a claim by someone else who is entitled.
Tax Credits cannot be interchanged with other benefits.
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The above section dealt with backdating claims. But there are ways of getting arrears where a person is already on benefit or was refused some time ago. In this situation they would need to ask the decision maker to reconsider an earlier decision. This is known as a revision or a supersession, depending upon the situation. Here are some of the main rules about when benefit arrears can be paid. These do not apply to Tax Credits.
Change in circumstances
If the claimant's situation changes and as a result they are entitled to an increase in benefit, it can be paid from the date of the change provided the claimant notifies the decision maker within one month of the change in circumstances taking place. This would normally be a supersession.
Late revision
Normally, a revision should be requested within one month of a disputed decision. However, this time limit can be extended another 12 months if there are special reasons for the delay. If successful, the benefit will be increased from the date of the changed decision.
Official error
If there was an official error then benefit arrears may go back to whenever that decision was made. Official error can include:
- the decision maker failed to take relevant information into account, or
- written or documentary evidence was not passed to the decision maker by another officer, or
- an error in law (but not if it were found to be an error in law due to another later test case)
Sometimes, entitlement to, or increases in, certain (dependent) benefits are linked to entitlement to another (qualifying) benefit. The intention of these rules is to ensure that a claimant does not miss out on any dependent benefit because of a delay in the qualifying benefit being awarded. The qualifying benefit can be awarded to the claimant or to a family member.
Examples of linked benefits:
- Getting AA or DLA mid/high rate care means carer may claim Carers Allowance
- A person can get long term rate of Incapacity Benefit after 28 weeks if they get DLA highest rate care component
- Getting AA or DLA at any rate qualifies claimant for the Disability Premium with Income Support or JSA-I
- Getting AA or DLA mid/high rate care component may qualify claimant for the Severe Disability Premium with Employment and Support Allowance (income related), Income Support or JSA-I (there are additional rules)
- Getting Carers Allowance qualifies claimant for the Carer Premium with Employment and Support Allowance (income related) and Income Support
- Getting Severe Disablement Allowance or Incapacity Benefit long term rate qualifies claimant for the Disability Premium with Income Support
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Example 1
An increase of an existing award of Income Support (dependent benefit) depends on getting Disability Living Allowance (qualifying benefit).
Serria is receiving a basic rate of IS. She claims DLA which takes 6 months to be awarded and is backdated to the date of claim. Getting DLA means she is entitled to extra IS (disability premium). She should ask for a supersession of her IS because she is now getting DLA. The extra IS should also be backdated to the date of the DLA claim.
The DLA unit should inform the IS section about the DLA award provided that Serria has ticked the box on the DLA claim form to indicate that she receives IS. In practice, it is best not to rely on this - Serria should inform the IS section herself. There is no time limit for doing this but the sooner it is done, the sooner the extra money can be paid.
Example 2
A claim - claim situation - where an initial award of Income Support depends on getting Disability Living Allowance.
What if Serria was not actually receiving IS at the time she claimed DLA? This may be because she has other income which takes her over the basic IS level. So she would only be entitled to IS if she was awarded DLA (that is a disability premium would be included in her IS assessment). In this situation, the claiming process is as follows:
Step 1
Serria should make a claim for both the dependent benefit (IS) and the qualifying benefit (DLA) at the same time.
Step 2
The IS is refused because she is not (at that time) receiving the DLA.
Step 3
At some later stage, the DLA is awarded and backdated.
Step 4
Within three months of the date of the DLA decision, Serria must make another claim for IS. The IS will then be backdated to the date when it was first claimed with the DLA, that is, in step 1.
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Example 3
John is getting a disability premium in his Income Support because he is incapable of work. However, on 13th December the DWP decide he is no longer incapable of work and so he also loses his disability premium. He needs to appeal the decision. If he wins the appeal, he will be accepted as incapable of work back to the 13th December and his disability premium will be reinstated in his IS again from the 13th December. He must tell the IS section straight away.
Example 4
Carers Allowance
This is similar to example 2, except here entitlement to Carers Allowance depends upon another person qualifying for Attendance Allowance or Disability Living Allowance - middle or highest rate care component.
Imran cares for Gladys. Gladys claims AA. Some months later, the AA is awarded and backdated to the date it was claimed. Within 3 months of the award decision, Imran should claim CA which will be backdated to same date AA was claimed. This may be more than the 3 months under the normal backdating rules.
This is an improvement from April 2006. Before that, Imran would have had to make a first claim at the same time of Gladys AA claim and a second claim at the time of the award decision.
Tax Credits
This applies to Working Tax Credit (WTC) where getting the disability or severe disability elements depends on getting a qualifying benefit (e.g. DLA, ICB or a disability premium) in the following situations:
- where the original WTC claim is turned down because the person has applied for but not yet been awarded a qualifying benefit. When the qualifying benefit is awarded, if the person makes a second WTC claim within 3 months, the claim can now include the appropriate disability elements and be backdated to the date the qualifying benefit was awarded or the date of the first WTC claim if later. (Similar to example 2 above).
- where a person is already getting WTC. Some time later they claim one of the qualifying benefits that leads to the disability element(s). They must tell Revenue and Customs about this claim at the same time. When the qualifying benefit is awarded and backdated, they must tell Revenue and Customs within 3 months and the disability element(s) will be backdated to the same date as the qualifying benefit. (Similar to example 1 above).
This is another way of getting arrears after a decision, but it is much more difficult. See also the rules on appeals.
Normally, decisions have to be appealed within one month but this can be extended a further 12 months if there are special reasons and there are reasonable prospects of success; or it is in the interests of justice to allow it.
If any of the usual rules for getting arrears do not apply a person may still be able to get arrears. For example, if the DWP has made a mistake or delayed payments. See compensation payments.
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