claiming back benefits? from 5 years ago?

sairz

im not sure where i stand with this and also not sure if the information i have is right but im going to go back 5 years ago here when me and my partner and new born son got our first home together, now when we signed for the house we also put in a claim for housing benefit as my partner worked but was on minimum wage which at the time was about £3.60 an hour ish he also worked 40 hours a week, we was advised by the housing office to pay £20 per week instead of about £40 until benefits was sorted out, now i cant remember if we ever got a letter back saying if we was entitled to or not but i can remember a different housing officer telling me when i enquired that because my partner worked we wouldnt be entitled to any benefit and that it was only for ppl who was unemployed so from the on i started paying full rent and council tax for nearly 5 years until my partner came out of work and our new claim was accepted, now this is where i found out i might have been entitled to something: im moving to a new property and wanted to find out if we would be entitled to housing benefit as the rent is high i also tried different amounts in as when we move my partner wants a job so i thought id check it as though he was on £5 an hour and it came up that he was entitled to some benefit, i then went back and worked it out from when i first moved into the house with my partner when he was getting 3.60 an hour and that also came back that we should have been entitled to £14 housing and £11 council tax benefit per week now it doesnt show you for year 2000 or anything but shurly things cant have changed that much? now i know it isnt much but when you add it up over 5 years where talking thousands of pounds of benefit ive lost out on and if its right its no wonder i bleeding struggled, i just dont know what to do, would i be able to claim all this back or should i just cut my losses or was i entitled to anything in the first place? what would you do?

Scarlett1

Dont quote me on this, but I think that if you dont claim at the time then you lose out also, a claim can only be backdated 3 months, so I doubt our wonderful benefit system 'owe' you anything

Ted_Hutchinson

Backdating a claim
Your claim to HB/CTB may be backdated in some circumstances. You must prove to the council that there was continuous good cause for not having made an earlier claim. However, the maximum time the council can go back is 52 weeks from the date your claim for backdating was actually made. You must show there was ‘good cause’ for not making an earlier claim throughout the whole of any period you want backdated up to the date your claim for backdating was made.

BenefitMaster

However, if you can show that you made a claim that the Housing Benefit people did not administer, you can seek compensation from the council either through legal process or through the Local Government Ombudsman for Maladministration.

Ted_Hutchinson

I think before you took the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman you should first have exhaused the local complaints procedure.

I think a complaint about misleading information someone may have given you five years ago would be difficult to sustain without evidence. I suspect that not many welfare rights providers would be willing to devote a lot of time to pursuing this but CLSDIRECT may find one local to this claimant.