Council Tax Benefit backdating help

loisamelia

Hi
I need some advice about possibly getting my council tax benefit backdated. I have applied but have been turned down(for the backdating-not heard about the actual benefit yet).
My problem is that both myself and my husband are self employed and we didnt realise our income was going to be low enough for us to qualify for any benefit until we came to do our accounts in April this year. Our big issue is that all the advice out there is aimed at what you earn per year and knowing that as a self employed person is very difficult, especially as this is the 1st full year my husband has been self employed. His income really fluctuates, some months very little, some months quite a lot depending on how fast people pay their invoices;)
The reason the council gave us for not backdating the benefit was that not being able to determine our income is not a good enough cause for delay in making a claim "A person who deliberately refrains from making a claim either because at the time he/she did not expect to obtain and immediate or future advantage of claiming....have not shown good cause for a late claim" whatever that means!!!
Anyway, what I am asking is in anyone's opinion is this right and do we have good enough grounds for a reconsideration of this decision?
My main arguement would be our ability to work out if we were entitled or not as we cant work out our yearly income until the end of the tax year.
Any advice/opinions welcome. This is the first time we have been in this situation (claiming CTB) so dont know how it all works

Thanks

karenx

How they usually do it for benefits for self employed is to give an estimate for the next 3 months, they will base it on that then at the 3 months point give them your actual earnings and the estimate for the next 3. And so on

[Deleted User]

the council are correct
and councils rarely back-date unless they are to blame

djh22

The main good causes for backdating the start of a claim are things like ill health,to sick to make the claim,or even to busy to make the claim and no one else was available to make the claim,or being wrongly advised by an official person that you were not entitled to Council Tax Benefit.
I'm afraid your reasons come under the "I didn't know I could claim" category which isn't a valid reason under present DWP guidelines.

[Deleted User]

lol "too busy to make a claim",they`d fall about laughing if you tried that one to get back dating

djh22

Yea I know and we did,but it was allowed,the emphasis was on the "No one else available" though.