Housing Benefit backpay

Cedric_Simple

Hi all. The last 12 months has been a real struggle. Having 4 kids, my partner on a low income etc.
We rent our property from a housing association and to keep up with these rent payments it's really kept us skint.

By chance i spotted an email from the this website saying i could be entitled to housing benefit and sure enough i rang them up and they said i was. Great! It works out that we are entitled to £28 p/w. Brilliant considering my rent is £88 p/w. A massive saving over the month for us and we just wished somebody had told us this earlier.

I filled in a backdated claim for 6 months but that was rejected because i didn't have a valid reason. What exactly can be classed as valid because as sure as anything had i known what i was entitled to i would have bunged this claim in as soon as my other half started the job 12 months ago.

I am tempted to appeal. Has anybody appealed this and got a result?

Really annoyed with this as we have fell behind with bills because of this and had we known we would be well and truly comfortable now.

Thanks

Oldernotwiser

I'm afraid that ignorance of what's available isn't a valid reason for backdating a claim; it's up to you to find out what you're eligible for.

Cedric_Simple

I just presumed working full time would mean you wouldn't be entitled to it. We were in receipt of the working tax and i just presumed that was covered.

Ahh well more evidence of the ones who want to work being punished.

Had she lost her job and not signed on for 6 months they would soon backpay that though. As i know through somebody else that happens.

Jakesmummy

You may have only recently become eligible tho as from november 2nd (i think) they stopped including child benefit as income so i suspect before that you probably wouldnt have been entitled. We get some housing benefit and the recent change has made quite a big difference to our weekly amount and we only have 2 children.

Macro_3

Cedric_Simple wrote: »

I just presumed working full time would mean you wouldn't be entitled to it. We were in receipt of the working tax and i just presumed that was covered.

Ahh well more evidence of the ones who want to work being punished.

Had she lost her job and not signed on for 6 months they would soon backpay that though. As i know through somebody else that happens.

*Sigh*

No, it's simply evidence of the fact that the system has to have limits, somewhere.

Just for the record, the chances of having the claim backdated would be no greater if she had signed on - in fact they may well be lower as the benefits department could have surmised from that that she had some rudimentary knowledge of the benefits system - and her prior knowledge could have been taken into account.

Good cause for backdating, generally, is something which could reasonably have caused someone else of similar age, experience, background, circumstances etc to behave in the same way and delay claiming. The good cause has to be continuous, and the longer the period of the backdate (again, generally) the better the reasons have to be: misadvice, hospitalization, bereavement, that sort of thing.