§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what estimate she has made of the cost effect of removing the discretion of adjudication officers with regard to the backdating of claims; [12078]
(2) what steps her Department is taking to ensure that genuine claimants are not penalised by the removal of discretion for adjudication officers with regard to backdated claims. [12077]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe changes to the backdating rules in April removed the administratively onerous good cause provision and replaced it with special reasons set out in regulations. These special reasons apply to income related benefits which are meant to meet immediate needs. It is, therefore, reasonable to limit the range of situations which count as a special reason for a late claim and it underlines the importance of claimants making their claims promptly.
Claims for non-income related benefits, such as retirement pension and child benefit, can receive backdating automatically without the need to show that there was a special reason for the delay.
We are committed to modernising and streamlining the structure and delivery of social security to make the system simpler for the public to understand and more straightforward for staff to administer. These changes went some way to simplify the complex rules for backdating benefits.