Advice To Claimants

EDM number 1317 in 1997-98, proposed by Harry Barnes on 13/05/1998.

That this House recognises that there is a variety of understandable and legitimate reasons why people do not always make claims for social security benefits on time, and that those who fall through the safety net endure hardship as they lose out on entitlement to the benefits they should have; strongly advises disability living allowance and attendance allowance claimants, in the light of the new restrictions on the period of time for which benefits can be backdated, to ask for a benefits check on their income and, where appropriate, to apply for income support at the same time as they apply for disability living allowance and/or attendance allowance; further recognises that, if income support entitlement is then denied but later reinstated, the backdating restrictions will not apply and that this procedure is a sensible safeguard to ensure that such claimants ultimately receive their full entitlement; and urges the Government to include a detailed examination of the new backdating of benefit rules in its Social Security Review so that the fairness of these provisions can be assessed along with proposed reforms to improve the delivery and effectiveness of the process of claiming benefits.

This motion has been signed by a total of 36 MPs.