# The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No.2) Regulations 1997, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/1968) in the following respects:
the requirements for making a claim in the case of a claim for income support or jobseeker’s allowance are amended, so that except in specified circumstances, such a claim must be made in writing on a form approved by the Secretary of State and in accordance with the instructions on the form, and must include any information or evidence which the form may require (regulation 2);
the time limits for claiming benefit are amended so that the maximum time for which entitlement to benefit may be backdated is three months for all benefits (regulations 4 to 7);
in respect of certain benefits, backdating of claims is only possible where the claimant was unable to claim earlier because of one of a number of specified reasons; also the time for claiming benefit may be extended for up to one month at the discretion of the Secretary of State where other specified circumstances apply (regulation 6);
the provisions on the date of claim are amended so that for specified claims, where a properly completed claim is received within one month of first notification of intention to make a claim, the date of claim shall be the date of that notification. Special rules apply in a claim for jobseeker’s allowance (regulation 3);
in specified circumstances, where a claim for benefit has been refused, and a second claim is later made for the same benefit, the second claim will be treated as made on the date of the first claim (regulation 3).
These Regulations also amend the Social Security Adjudication Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/1801) to provide that, subject to certain exceptions, where entitlement to benefit is reviewed, the review cannot be backdated for more than one month (regulations 8 to 17).
The Regulations also amend the Social Security (Maternity Allowance) Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/416) in respect of the circumstances in which the maternity allowance period may be modified (regulation 18).
These Regulations revoke regulation 4 of the Social Security (Attendance Allowance) Regulations 1991 (S.I. 1991/2740) and regulation 5 of the Social Security (Disability Living Allowance) Regulations 1991 (S.I. 1991/2890), which permitted entitlement to those benefits to be backdated in certain circumstances; they also revoke regulation 2 of the Child Benefit, Child Support and Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1996 (S.I.1996/1803), which is rendered obsolete by these Regulations (regulation 19).
The Report of the Social Security Advisory Committee dated 27 February 1997 on the proposals referred to it together with a statement showing the extent to which these Regulations give effect to the Recommendations of the Committee, and in so far as they do not give effect to them the reasons why not, are contained in Command Paper Cm. 3586, published by The Stationery Office Limited.
These Regulations do not impose any costs on business.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/793/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/social-security-miscellaneous-amendments-no2-regulations-1997/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.