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One for my Local Goverment colleagues. My housing benefits managers have asked for advice on disposing of benefit application files. RMS guidelines based on 'commomn practice' are 7 years - paragraph 7.22. My people want to apply a shorter period, say 3 years, on the basis that the number of queries outside that period is so minutely small as to not justify the cost of storage (we are still paper based). Does anyone else adopt a shorter period and if so on what basis ? Alternatively does anyone know of any specific regulatory requirement (other than the general 6 years limitation period plus a safety margin) which may have contributed to the 7 year common practice ? My current inclination is to insist they stick to the 7 years.