Backdating

Sometimes it is possible to get your benefit paid from a date before you made your claim, if you met the entitlement conditions during that time. This is called ‘backdating’. There are different backdating rules for different benefits. The table below gives a brief outline of the main rules. See CPAG’s Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook for more information.

Benefit/tax credit	Backdating
Attendance allowance	No backdating.
Carer’s allowance	Up to three months. No special reasons required. If you claim within three months of the person you care for being awarded DLA care component (middle or highest rate), PIP daily living component or AA, CA can be backdated to the date DLA, PIP or AA was awarded.
Child benefit	Up to three months. No special reasons required. Backdating may not be possible, however, if someone else was getting child benefit for the child during the three-month period.
Disability living allowance	No backdating.
Employment and support allowance	Up to three months. No special reasons required.
Guardian’s allowance	Up to three months. No special reasons required.
Health benefits – eg, free dental treatment	If you pay for an item that you could have got free or at a reduced cost, you can apply for a refund. You should do so within three months of paying for the item, although this time limit can be extended if you show good cause.
Housing benefit/council tax reduction	If under pension age, up to one month for HB and six months for CTR if you can show continuous good cause. If you have reached pension age and neither you nor your partner are on income support (IS), income-based jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), income-related employment and support allowance or universal credit, up to three months and no special reasons required.
Income support	In prescribed circumstances, up to one month, and in other prescribed circumstances, up to three months. Backdating for more than three months is possible if a qualifying benefit, such as PIP or DLA, has been awarded and an earlier claim for IS was refused.
Jobseeker’s allowance	In prescribed circumstances, up to one month, and in other prescribed circumstances, up to three months. Backdating for more than three months is possible if a qualifying benefit, such as DLA, has been awarded, and an earlier claim for JSA was refused.
Pension credit	Up to three months. No special reasons required.
Personal independence payment	No backdating.
Scottish child payment	It is expected that there will be no backdating.
Statutory adoption and paternity pay	Usually, you must give your employer 28 days’ notice. If you are not able to do so, and your employer accepts you gave notice as soon as reasonably practicable, statutory adoption/paternity pay can be paid from the date you have chosen to start your adoption/paternity leave.
Statutory shared parental pay	Usually, you must give your employer eight weeks’ notice before the start of the period for which you want to claim.
Tax credits	Up to one month. No special reasons required.
Universal credit	In prescribed circumstances, up to one month.