Our online forms and systems

Some of our forms and systems will be offline between 7:00pm on Monday 18 March and 7:00am on Tuesday 19 March. Forms or payments submitted or made by phone after 8:30pm may not be received. We are sorry for any inconvenience.

About backdating claims

Your benefit will usually start the Monday after we receive your application. In some circumstances, we may be able to pay Housing Benefit for an earlier date than the date of your claim form. This is known as a “backdate”.

Reasons for backdating a claim

Backdating is sometimes possible, but there are only limited circumstances, so it is best to make your claim for housing benefit as soon as possible.

The rules about when we can pay a backdate are different for people who are working age and people who have reached pension age.

Pension age

If you (or your partner if you have one) have reached pension age, you don’t have to ask us to backdate your claim – we will automatically check if we can when we receive your form. This only applies if you (or your partner) are not in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance, Income Support, or Employment and Support Allowance.

If we can backdate your claim, the most we can go back is 3 months before you made your claim.

Working age

From 1 April we may be able to backdate your Housing Benefit for up to 1 month, but you must have a good reason for not having claimed sooner. See details of how to ask for a backdate.

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