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