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CU v SSWP and backdating
Just looking at the decision on CU v SSWP which was published in the case law section two days ago. Of course this is good news in considering the factors which can be taken into account for backdating. However I notice the representative asked for approximately 3 months’ backdating. As I read the regulations even when the reasons for backdating are accepted it is still limited to 1 month. Am I missing something?
The claimant seems to have asked for their award to be ‘backdated’ from 25/02/22 through to 17/11/21. You are quite right that this wouldn’t have been possible under reg 26 C&P and the most that could have been done is to go back a month.
In fairness to the representative, there doesn’t seem to be any suggestion that they were trying to argue that the award could go back as far as 17/11/21. The issue was about the proper approach to the question of whether disability had prevented the claim being made sooner, with the FtT having refused to extend the time for claiming at all.
Yes, I agree. It’s a really helpful case as it extends the concept of reasonableness. But I wondered if somewhere buried in the regulations there was an exception to the 1 month rule which I had overlooked.