18. The award
Attendance allowance may be awarded for a fixed period or indefinitely. If your award is for a fixed period, the DWP will invite you to make a renewal claim about four months before the end of your current award.
Backdating – Attendance allowance cannot be backdated to earlier than your date of claim (see
15 above ). There are only limited situations in which an earlier date can be treated as your date of claim. These are:
■If industrial action has caused postal disruption, the day your claim would have been delivered to the DWP is treated as your date of claim.
■If a decision maker uses their discretion to treat anything written as being sufficient to count as a valid claim, the date that earlier document was received is treated as your date of claim.