Backdating your claim

Transcription

1 Backdating your claim Housing and council tax benefit advice

2 Equal Opportunities Statement Gravesham Borough Council is committed to ensuring that no service user or customer is discriminated against on the grounds of ethnic / national origin, gender, disability, age, race, colour, sexuality or religion. Leaflets available: Help with rent and Council Tax for Working Age People (L008) Help with rent and Council Tax for Pensioners (L007) Can my Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claim be backdated? (L006) Changes you need to tell us about (L010) A Guide for the Self-Employed (L012) Discretionary Housing Payments - Extra help towards your rent & Council Tax (L003) Appeals - What do I do if I disagree with your decision? (L005) A guide to Overpayments and Debt (L009) A guide for Landlords and Agents (L004) A guide to Local Housing Allowance (L014) A guide to Local Housing Allowance for Landlords and Agents (L013) A guide for Students (L011) You can get the above leaflets in large print.! Please note that whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the details given in this leaflet are correct, the information should not be treated as an authoritative statement of benefit regulations. 2

3 What are Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit? Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are national welfare benefits which help people on a low income or in receipt of other benefits. Housing Benefit is paid to people who have a liability to pay rent. Council Tax Benefit is paid to people who are liable to pay Council Tax. There are two types of Council Tax Benefit. Main Council Tax Benefit Second Adult Rebate Both Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are means-tested benefits. This means that when we work out your benefit, we have to take account of things like your income, investments and savings. Local councils run the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit schemes, using government rules. Can my claim be backdated? If you qualify for Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit we usually pay your benefit from the Monday after you asked us for an application form, unless you did not return the form to us within one calendar month. If you make a claim for Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit over the telephone with Jobcentre Plus, we will treat the date of your claim as the same date you contacted Jobcentre Plus. Sometimes we can pay benefit before the date you claim. This is called backdating your claim. All requests for backdating must be made in writing. 3

4 I am over pension age. When will my benefit start? If you, or your partner, are over pension age and qualify for Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit we can backdate your benefit up to three months before the date you made your claim (as long as you were entitled to benefit for that period). If you are over pension age and you are entitled to benefit from a date before you claimed, we will give you your benefit automatically. We do not need to know why you did not claim sooner to backdate your benefit. For us to work out how much benefit you will be entitled to, you will need to give us proof of your income, savings and rent for the period you want to claim. Please contact us if you think your claim should start from an earlier date. I am working age. When will my benefit start? We can backdate your benefit up to six months before the date you made your claim. There must be a good reason why your claim could not have been made earlier this is known as good cause. Good cause must be continuous throughout the period you want your benefit backdated. 4

5 What do you mean by good cause? In general, good cause is something that stopped you from making your benefit claim earlier. The benefit regulations do not say what are, and what are not, good cause so we must look at each case individually. Good cause includes the following: you were ill and had no one to make the claim for you; you were waiting for a decision about another benefit; you could not claim immediately after leaving hospital, prison or long-term care; you could not reasonably have been expected to know your rights, for example, if the law has recently changed; you were given the wrong advice by an official organisation that you were not entitled to Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit; you were unable to manage your affairs and did not have an appointee or someone to help you; a close relative died; or you did not understand that you could claim because of: o age; o language difficulties; o difficulty in understanding technical documents; or o some other reason. You may also be asked to provide evidence to support your request for backdating. Quoting one of these reasons alone will not automatically mean that you have proved good cause. Every case is looked at individually and good cause must be continuous for the whole period. 5

6 An example of backdating You were ill from January to March, and only claimed benefit in March when you were better. You hadn t been able to claim before March because you had no one to act for you. In this case, we would consider backdating your benefit to January. But If you were ill from January to March and had no one to act for you and you delayed your claim until May, we would not be able to backdate your claim to January. We would only pay Housing Benefit from May because good cause was not continuous from January to May. What is not good cause? The following are not normally considered good cause for backdating a claim: not claiming because you thought you would not qualify; waiting for proofs to go with the application form; forgetting to post the application form or mislaying it. 6

7 What do I do if I think I have good cause for making a backdated claim? If you think you have good cause for making a backdated claim, you must complete a claim form for the period you wish to claim for. Please make sure you complete part 11 of your claim form fully and provide proof of your income and savings for the period you are requesting backdated benefit for. For example if you were working we will need to see your payslips for the backdated period. You must give full details of why your claim is late. We will then make a decision and write to you telling you whether we can backdate your benefit. If we decide not to backdate your benefit, we will tell you why. What information do I need to provide? To be able to make an assessment on the period you have requested backdating benefit, you will need to provide proof of your income and savings for that period. Without these details we cannot make an assessment and you may lose out on benefit. 7

8 Questions to ask yourself before requesting a backdating of Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit Have you claimed Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit before? Have you ever heard of Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit before? Have you claimed other benefits before? Have you been in long term care until recently? e.g. hospital Did you wait to hear about a claim for another benefit before claiming Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit? Did you wait for other information to back up your claim before claiming? Was there a reason why you thought you did not have to claim? Did you not claim before because you thought you would not be entitled? Did you not claim before because you were expecting money from elsewhere? Are you a school leaver and unaware of the benefits system? Do you have problems with speaking, reading or writing English? Did you suffer any physical or medical condition which stopped you claiming? Were you absent from home due to fear of domestic violence? Do you have problems getting your post? Have you been in custody before making a claim? Did your late partner deal with all your financial affairs? Did you seek advice about claiming Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit? Did you know of anyone who could seek advice or claim on your behalf? Did you have an appointee, but there was a good reason why they could not claim for you (such as being in hospital at the time)? Did you make contact with the Council or the Jobcentre Plus? Had you been turned down for benefit in the past? Did an official advise you not to claim at the time? Did you have contact with people who could help, such as Age Concern, Neighbourhood Housing Offices, Home Helps, etc? 8

9 What happens if my claim is successfully backdated? If you are claiming Council Tax Benefit the backdated benefit will be paid directly to your Council Tax account. If you are claiming Housing Benefit the backdated benefit will either: be paid directly to your rent account if you rent from Gravesham Borough Council; or be sent to the person who already receives the payment. This could be either yourself, your landlord, your appointee or a third party. What can I do if I disagree with your decision? We may feel that you have not demonstrated to us good enough reasons to backdate your benefit. If you do not agree with our decision, you can ask us to look at it again. You must write to us within one calendar month of the date on the Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit decision letter. Your letter should say why you disagree. You can also phone us on , write to us or visit us at the Civic Centre to ask us to explain our decision. You can also ask for a written statement of our reasons for our decision which will give you more information. If you are still not satisfied, you can appeal to us in writing. The Tribunal Service will then decide on your appeal at a tribunal hearing. For more information see our leaflet Appeals - What do I do if I disagree with your decision? 9

10 i Where Can I Get Help? You can always phone us for help and advice. For details visit our website or see the back of this leaflet. You could also contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau or Shelter Kent Housing Aid. Citizens Advice Bureau Gravesend 44 Windmill Street Gravesend Kent DA12 1BA Call Shelter Kent (North) Housing Aid Centre 2 Ordnance Street Chatham Kent ME4 6SL Shelter is a charitable organisation that offers independent housing aid consisting of confidential advice, assistance and active support on a wide range of housing problems. Their advice service is free of charge and operates independently from Gravesham Borough Council. Personal callers are dealt with between 10am and 1pm on Mondays and Fridays, and between 2pm and 4.30pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The centre is also contactable by telephone. A telephone advice line ( ) is available between the hours of 10am and 1pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesday and Fridays, and between 2pm and 4.30pm on Thursdays. If you need to contact Shelter outside these hours, please ring the number shown above and leave a message on the answer phone a housing adviser will contact you as soon as possible. Alternatively, call the national free phone number Shelterline,

11 If you have any questions about your Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit. Phone us on: The telephone lines are open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm A service is available for minicom users on: (for textphone users only) Write to us at: Benefit Section Gravesham Borough Council P.O. Box 80 Gravesend Kent DA12 1ZQ us at Housingbenefits@gravesham.gov.uk Visit our Civic Centre office at the following times. Monday to Friday 9am pm What if I want to comment on your service? We value all comments regarding our service and would like to hear from you as we are committed to providing a high quality and accessible service. All comments regarding this leaflet or any aspect of our service are welcome. You can contact us in the following ways: Visit us at the Civic Centre, Windmill Street, Gravesend. Phone us on: Minicom users on: us at: Housingbenefits@gravesham.gov.uk Switchboard Minicom Website

12 Leaflet L006, April