Social Security Benefits

Paul Rowen
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many backdating claims on the grounds of good cause were awarded for periods longer than three months for (a) housing benefit, (b) council tax benefit and (c) pension credit in each of the last five years, broken down by region; what proportion of total claims for each benefit they represented in each year; and if he will make a statement;

(2) what the (a) total cost to his Department and (b) average payment to claimants was of backdating claims on grounds of good cause that were awarded for periods longer than three months for (i) housing benefit, (ii) council tax benefit and (iii) pension credit in each of the last five years.

Mr. Plaskitt
The information requested is not available.

Pension credit does not use a good cause rule when determining if a person was eligible from an earlier point in time to the date of claim.

Prior to April 2007, no information was collected from local authorities on the amount of backdating paid out to housing benefit and council tax benefit claimants.

Following the introduction of a new data source this information will become available in the future. However, currently there is insufficient data to be able to estimate the amount spent on backdating.