Change of Circumstance and Backdate Requests

Change of circumstance


If there is a change in your circumstances which may make a difference to your Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction Scheme claim you need to be aware of the following:


If the change will mean that we will pay you more benefit, we will only amend your claim from the Monday after you tell us about it, unless you tell us within one month of the change.

If the change will mean that we will pay you less benefit, we will amend your claim from the Monday after the change (this may mean you have been paid too much and you will need to repay it).


PLEASE NOTE:
Telling the Department for Work and Pensions of a change does not mean that they will automatically tell the Council. You must also tell us.
Examples of changes in circumstances that you must tell us about are:

 

  • if you change address
  • a change in your income/capital, your partner's income/capital or the income of any non-dependants who live with you
  • if someone joins or leaves the household
  • if you have to go into hospital or claim for someone who goes into hospital
  • if you have to go into residential care or a nursing home
  • a change in your rent


You must tell us about any changes in your circumstances in writing, as soon as the change occurs.

You should always let us know if your circumstances change. We will then be able to help you to ensure that you are paid the correct amount of benefit.

 

Backdated claims 


For all claimants (and partners) under 60 years of age: 

If you qualify we will give you Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction Scheme on the Monday after we receive your claim.  We can backdate benefits for up to one month if you can give us a good reason why you did not apply earlier.

The following are some examples where we may backdate benefit:

 

  • The death of a close relative.
  • If you are seriously ill or go to hospital which means you cannot manage your own affairs.
  • Marriage problems.
  • Major language difficulties.

  

However, the following are not good reasons:

 

  • You didn't think that you would get any help.
  • You didn't know that you could get help.
  • You just did not apply for help.  

 

For all claimants (and/or partner)  60 years of age or over :

The rules allow us to automatically consider starting your benefit up to 3 months earlier than when we actually received your claim (unless this period goes prior to your 60th birthday, in which case we can only automatically backdate to that time)

Therefore, you will not need to write to us with good reasons (as mentioned above) as to why we should backdate your claim. 

 

How to apply for a backdate 

You should contact the Benefits Section at Daventry District Council.

 

What will happen next? 

  • We may send you a form to fill in.
  • We may ask you for more information.
  • We may ask you to come and see us for an interview.
  • Or, we may backdate your benefit without asking you any more questions.  


What will we do?  

  1. We will look at your request for benefit
  2. We will make a decision based on all the facts.
  3. We will write and tell you our decision.
  4. You can appeal against our decision but you must write to us within one calendar month of receiving our decision notice.  

 

Contact us