Section 1 | Entitlement to benefit dependent on claim
From legislation.gov.uk
26 October 2026
(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.
(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.F1
(1B)This subsection is satisfied in relation to a person if—F1
(a)the claim is accompanied by—F1
(i)a statement of the person's national insurance number and information or evidence establishing that that number has been allocated to the person; orF1
(ii)information or evidence enabling the national insurance number that has been allocated to the person to be ascertained; orF1
(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.F1
(1C)Regulations may make provision disapplying subsection (1A) above in the case of—F1
(a)prescribed benefits;F1
(b)prescribed descriptions of persons making claims; orF1
(c)prescribed descriptions of persons in respect of whom benefit is claimed, or in other prescribed circumstances.F1
(2)Where under subsection (1) 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, the person is not entitled to it in respect of any period more than 12 months before the date on which the claim is made or treated as made.F2
(2A)But subsection (2) does not apply—F2
(a)to disablement benefit or reduced earnings allowance, orF2
(b)in a case where a claim for the benefit is made or treated as made by virtue of section 3(2).F2
(3)Where a person purports to make a claim on behalf of another—
(za)for personal independence payment by virtue of section 82 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012; orF3
(a)for an attendance allowance by virtue of section 66(1) of the Contributions and Benefits Act; ...F4
(b)RepealedF4
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—
(za)universal credit;F5
(zb)state pension or a lump sum under Part 1 of the Pensions Act 2014;F6
(zc)bereavement support payment under section 30 of the Pensions Act 2014;F7
(a)benefit as defined in section 122 of the Contributions and Benefits Act;
(aa)a jobseeker's allowance;F8
(ab)state pension credit;F9
(ac)an employment and support allowance; andF10
(ad)personal independence payment.F11
(b)any income-related benefit.
(5)This section (which corresponds to section 165A 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.