First of all voluntary contributions do not help you qualify for incapacity benefit, only State Pension. The only contributions that do are class 1 and class 2, and up to a point only, credits.
Any backdating beyond the statutory 3 months is only a starter, in my view, if the cause of the problem was within the DWP - wrong advice then. Bear in mind that for many benefits even wrong advice from DWP will normally only allow backdating for a maximum of 3 months.
This is not an uncommon problem for many people who for whatever reason are ignorant of their rights to benefits. Maybe someone should have mentioned it but the issue lies between her and whoever that "someone" is. And that is a legalistic way of thinking.
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