Part IN.I. Claims for and Payments and General Administration of Benefit

Necessity of claimN.I.

1 Entitlement to benefit dependent on claim.N.I.

(1)Except in such cases as may be prescribed, and subject to the following provisions of this section and to section 3 below, no person shall be entitled to any benefit unless, in addition to any other conditions relating to that benefit being satisfied—

(a)he makes a claim for it in the manner, and within the time, prescribed in relation to that benefit by regulations under this Part of this Act; or

(b)he is treated by virtue of such regulations as making a claim for it.

[F1(1A)No person whose entitlement to any benefit depends on his making a claim shall be entitled to the benefit unless subsection (1B) below is satisfied in relation both to the person making the claim and to any other person in respect of whom he is claiming benefit.

(1B)This subsection is satisfied in relation to a person if—

(a)the claim is accompanied by—

(i)a statement of the person’s national insurance number and information or evidence establishing that that number has been allocated to the person; or

(ii)information or evidence enabling the national insurance number that has been allocated to the person to be ascertained; or

(b)the person makes an application for a national insurance number to be allocated to him which is accompanied by information or evidence enabling such a number to be so allocated.

(1C)Regulations may make provision disapplying subsection (1A) above in the case of—

(a)prescribed benefits;

(b)prescribed descriptions of persons making claims; or

(c)prescribed descriptions of persons in respect of whom benefit is claimed,

or in other prescribed circumstances.]

(2)Where under subsection (1) above a person is required to make a claim or to be treated as making a claim for a benefit in order to be entitled to it—

(a)if the benefit is a [F2bereavement payment, the person] shall not be entitled to it in respect of a death occurring more than 12 months before the date on which the claim is made or treated as made; and

(b)if the benefit is any other benefit except disablement benefit or reduced earnings allowance, the person shall not be entitled to it in respect of any period more than 12 months before that date,

except as provided by section 3 below.

(3)Where a person purports to make a claim on behalf of another—

(a)for an attendance allowance by virtue of section 66(1) of the Contributions and Benefits Act; or

(b)for a disability living allowance by virtue of section 72(5) or 73(12) of that Act,

that other shall be regarded for the purposes of this section as making the claim, notwithstanding that it is made without his knowledge or authority.

(4)In this section and section 2 below “benefit” means—

(a)benefit as defined in section 121 of the Contributions and Benefits Act;

[F3(aa)a jobseeker’s allowance;]and

[F4(ab)state pension credit;]

[F5(ac)an employment and support allowance;]

(b)any income-related benefit.

(5)This section (which corresponds to section 154A of the 1975 Act, as it had effect immediately before this Act came into force) applies to claims made on or after 1st October 1990 or treated by virtue of regulations under that section or this section as having been made on or after that date.

(6)Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect in relation to other claims.