Regulation 62 Time and manner in which claims are to be madeI1
England, Wales and Scotland
Every claim shall be in writing and made on a properly completed form approved for the purpose by the appropriate authority or in such written form as the appropriate authority may accept as sufficient in the circumstances of any particular case or class of cases and be accompanied by or supplemented by such certificates, documents, information and evidence as are required in accordance with regulation 63(1) (evidence and information).
The forms approved for the purpose of claiming shall be provided free of charge by the appropriate authority or such persons as they may authorise or appoint for the purpose.
Each appropriate authority shall notify the Secretary of State of the address to which claims delivered or sent to the appropriate social security office are to be forwarded.
A claim—
may be sent or delivered to the appropriate social security office where the claimant or his partner is also claiming income support;
where it has not been sent or delivered to the appropriate social security office, shall be sent or delivered to the designated office;
sent or delivered to the appropriate social security office shall be forwarded to the appropriate authority within two working days of the date of either the date of determination of the claim for income support or the receipt of the claim at the appropriate social security office, whichever is the later, or as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter.
Subject to paragraph (12) the date on which a claim is made shall be—
in a case where an award of income support has been made to the claimant or his partner and the claim is made within 4 weeks of the date on which the claim for that income support was received at the appropriate social security office, the first day of entitlement to that income support;
in a case where the claimant or his partner claimed income support but there is no entitlement to income support, the date on which the claim for council tax benefit is received at the appropriate social security office or the designated office whichever is the earlier;
in a case where a claimant or his partner is a person on income support and he becomes liable for the first time to pay council tax in respect of the dwelling he occupies as his home, where the claim to the authority is received at the designated office or appropriate social security office within 4 weeks of the date of the change, the date on which the change takes place;
in any other case, the date on which the claim is received at the designated office.
Where a claim received at the designated office has not been made in the manner prescribed in paragraph (1), that claim is for the purposes of these Regulations defective.
Where a claim is defective because—
it was made on the form approved for the purpose but that form is not accepted by the appropriate authority as being in a written form sufficient in the circumstances of the case; or
it was made in writing but not on the form approved for the purpose and the appropriate authority does not accept the claim as being in a written form which is sufficient in the circumstances of the case,
the appropriate authority may, in a case to which sub-paragraph (a) applies, refer the defective claim to the claimant or, in a case to which sub-paragraph (b) applies, supply the claimant with the approved form.
The appropriate authority shall treat a defective claim as it if had been made in the first instance where the approved form referred or sent to the claimant in accordance with paragraph (7) is received at the designated office properly completed within 4 weeks of it having been referred or sent to him, or such longer period as the appropriate authority may consider reasonable.
A claim which is made on an approved form for the time being is, for the purposes of this regulation, properly completed if completed in accordance with the instructions on the form.
Where a person has not yet become liable for council tax to an appropriate authority but it is anticipated that he will become so liable within a period of 8 weeks (the relevant period), he may claim council tax benefit at any time in that period in respect of that tax and, provided that liability arises within the relevant period, the authority shall treat the claim as having been made on the day on which the liability for the tax arises.
Where, exceptionally, an appropriate authority has not set or imposed its council tax by the beginning of the financial year, if a claim for council tax benefit is properly made or treated as properly made and—
the date on which the claim is made or treated as made is in the period from the 1st April of the current year and ending 4 weeks after the date on which the authority sets or imposes the tax; and
if the tax had been determined, the claimant would have been entitled to council tax benefit either from—
the benefit week in which the 1st April of the current year fell, or
a benefit week falling after the date specified in head (i) but before the claim was made,
the appropriate authority shall treat the claim as made in the benefit week immediately preceding the benefit week in which such entitlement would have commenced.
Where the claimant is not entitled to council tax benefit in the benefit week immediately following the date of his claim but the appropriate authority is of the opinion that unless there is a change of circumstances he will be entitled to council tax benefit for a period beginning not later than the thirteenth benefit week following the date on which the claim is made, the appropriate authority may treat the claim as made on a date in the benefit week immediately preceding the first benefit week of that period of entitlement and award benefit accordingly.
A person to whom council tax benefit has been granted, or the partner of such a person, may make a claim to the appropriate authority for a further grant of that benefit, for a period beginning immediately after the end of his current benefit period, not more than 13 weeks before the end of that period.
A person may make a further claim not more than 4 weeks after the end of his benefit period or the benefit period of his partner or former partner for a further grant of such benefit, for a period beginning immediately after the end of that benefit period.
The appropriate authority shall invite a person to whom council tax benefit has been granted to make a claim for a further grant of that benefit where either—
the benefit period ended in circumstances to which regulation 58(a) and (b) refers (end of entitlement to income support); or
the benefit period is for a period exceeding 16 weeks and is due to end within 8 weeks in accordance with regulation 57(2) to (4) (benefit period) and no such claim has been received in accordance with paragraph (13),
and any claim received following that invitation, if made within 4 weeks of the end of the current benefit period, shall be treated as made for a period beginning immediately after the end of that benefit period in accordance with paragraph (13) or, as the case may be, paragraph (14).
Where the claimant makes a claim in respect of any period before the date on which that claim was, or was treated as, made and he proves that there was good cause for his failure to make that claim throughout the period between any date in that earlier period and the date on which the claim was or was treated as made, his claim shall, subject to section 1(2) of the Administration Act 1992 (12 months limit on entitlement before the date of claim), be treated as made on the first day of that earlier period from which he can prove good cause.
Annotations
Commencement
- I1
Reg. 62 in force at 17.8.1992, see reg. 1(a)