Backdated Claims

Sometimes we can pay Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction for a period before you made a claim.

You must prove "good cause" for not claiming when you should have. We treat every claim on it's own merit. Some examples of 'good cause' are; 

• Being misled by official information, either from us or the Department for Work and Pensions
• Not reasonably being expected to understand the regulations due to age, illiteracy or language problems. 

You must claim in writing to:

Benefits Section, 16 Church Street, Dumbarton, G82 1QL

You can either write to us or complete a backdate request form that is available from your local Housing Benefit Office. 

We may ask you to provide evidence to support your request for backdated benefit. 

Housing and/or Council Tax Reduction can be backdated for a maximum period of 6 months for working age claimants. 

For claims received from pension age claimants a maximum period of 3 months applies without the requirement to show "good cause", therefore these claims will be automatically backdated where there is entitlement to Housing and/or Council Tax Reduction. 

If you are unhappy with our decision regarding your backdate request, you can write to us asking to look at our decision again. You must do this giving reasons on why you disagree with this decision.