Reconsiderations and Appeals
The decision
Do you want more
information about the decision?
When you contact us
Do you want us to look at
the decision again?
What happens next?
Do you want to appeal against
the decision?
What the tribunal looks
at
Late appeals
Appeal tribunals
After you have made an
appeal
Oral hearing
Paper hearing
The result
If you disagree with the
tribunal's decision
Other organisations that can
help
The decision
If you get a decision in writing from us about
Housing or Council Tax Benefit, you can ask us to look at it again.
If we do not change our decision you may be able to appeal to an
independent tribunal. The letter telling you about the decision
will tell you if you can appeal.
- If you receive a decision in writing it is usually because you
have
- claimed Housing or Council Tax Benefit
- had a change of circumstance which affects your benefit
- been told you have to pay back benefit
- You may be able to ask us to look again at a decision or appeal
against it. There are special rules if you are not claiming the
benefit yourself. For example, if you are a landlord and a decision
is made about whether Housing Benefit is to be paid directly to you
or if you are a landlord and a decision is made to recover an
overpayment of Housing Benefit from you.
- If you are an appointee for another person you can ask us to
look again at a decision about their benefit and you may be able to
appeal for them. The letter telling you about the decision will
tell you if you can appeal. An appointee is someone appointed by us
to act for a person who cannot act for themselves.
Do you want more information about the decision?
- You have received a letter telling you about your Housing or
Council Tax Benefit decision
Do you:
- Want more information about that decision?
If YES, contact us about the decision letter straight away.
- You must do this straight away because if you want us to look
at the decision again or if you want to appeal against it, you must
do so within one calendar month of the date on the decision letter,
not the date you contact the office.
- You can phone, write or visit us.
When you contact us
You have a choice:
- You can ask us to explain the reasons for the decision
and/or
- If you want more information to help you decide what to do, ask
us for a written statement of reasons for the decision if we have
not already sent you one. You must do this within one month of the
date of the decision letter. We will send the statement of reasons
to you as soon as possible.
- If you still disagree with the decision, you can:
- ask us to look at it again
- appeal against the decision
- If you asked for a written statement of reasons the one month
you have to ask us to look at the decision again or to appeal
against it will be extended by the time we took to send the
statement of reasons.
Do you want us to look at the decision again?
- You have received a letter from us telling you the decision or
a written statement of reasons explaining the decision
- Or we have explained our decision and you still think it is
wrong
Do you:
- Want us to look at the decision again?
If YES, we will look at the decision again.
- Advise us in writing, within one calendar month of the date of
the letter. If you ask for an explanation first the one month is
still counted from the date of the decision letter. If you ask for
a written statement of reasons you will have one calendar month
from the date of the decision letter plus the time we took to send
you the statement of reasons.
- If there are special circumstances which mean you cannot
contact us within one month, we may still be able to change the
decision. Tell us what the special circumstances are when you
contact us.
- If you ask us to look at a decision again more than one month
after the date of the decision letter and you do not have special
circumstances, we may still be able to change the decision. But
this will usually only be from the date you wrote to us.
What happens next?
- When you ask us to look at a decision again, we will
check that the decision is correct
- A different member of staff will usually do this
- If the decision is wrong we will change it.
If the decision can be changed
- If you asked us to look at our decision again, within one
month, or had special circumstances which meant you could not, we
will change the decision from the date of the original
decision.
- If you do not agree with the new decision, you can ask us to
look at it again.
- If you asked us to look at our decision again after one month
and did not have special circumstances, the decision will usually
be changed from the date you asked us on.
- We will send you a letter telling you what the new decision
is.
If the decision cannot be changed
- If the decision cannot be changed, we will send you a letter
telling you that we cannot change it. The letter will confirm the
original decision.
- The letter will tell you if you can appeal against the original
decision.
- If you can appeal, the one calendar month time limit starts
again from the date of the letter confirming the decision.
Do you want to appeal against the decision?
- You have received a letter from us telling you the decision or
a written statement of reasons explaining the decision
- Or we have explained our decision and you still think it is
wrong
- The letter telling you about the decision tells you if you have
the right to appeal against it.
Do you:
- Have the right to appeal against the decision?
- Believe the decision is wrong?
- Want to appeal to an independent tribunal?
If YES, to all, use the form provided by the benefits
section.
The Appeals Service will decide your appeal at a tribunal hearing.
The tribunal is made up of people who are not from the Local
Authority
- Complete all relevant boxes on the form. You can get help from
an advice centre or a solicitor.
- Write down the reasons for your appeal. This is important
because the tribunal does not have to look at anything you do not
mention. Make sure that you sign the form.
- Send the form back to the Benefits Section as detailed on your
decision letter within one month of the date on the decision
letter.
- If you cannot appeal against the decision you can still ask us
to look at it again, 'See Do you want us to look at our decision
again?'.
- Remember, if the appeal tribunal finds you have been getting
too much money your benefit will be reduced.
What the tribunal looks at
- The tribunal can only look at the evidence, the law and the
circumstances at the time we made the decision you are appealing
against.
- The tribunal cannot look at changes of circumstances that
happened after we made the decision.
- If a change of circumstances could affect your benefit or mean
you could claim again, you should report it straight away. Do not
wait for the appeal hearing. Contact us using the details shown on
your decision letter.
Late appeals
- The Appeals Service may not be able to accept your appeal if it
is received more than one month after the date on the decision
letter.
- They can only accept a late appeal if there are special
circumstances that caused the delay. These could be a death, a
serious illness, absence abroad, a postal strike or some other
special circumstance.
- You should include an explanation of why you could not appeal
within one month on the form.
- A legally qualified tribunal member will look at the reasons
you have given for not appealing in time and will decide if your
appeal can be accepted. They will look at:
- whether there were special circumstances for the delay
- the length of time since you received the decision
- whether it is in the interests of justice that your appeal is
accepted, and
- whether your appeal is reasonably likely to succeed.
- The Appeals Service cannot accept a late appeal if the only
reason is that you misunderstood the law, or interpretation of the
law has changed since the decision was made.
- Your appeal cannot be accepted if you appeal 13 months or more
after the date on the decision letter.
Appeal tribunals
- Tribunals are made up of up to two members neither of whom are
from the Local Authority
- Tribunal members will be experts on the issues involved in your
appeal.
- All tribunals have a legally qualified member to help apply the
law to your appeal
- Tribunals may also include someone with financial
qualifications.
After you have made an appeal
- After you have appealed we will offer you an explanation of our
decision if we have not already done this.
- We will look at the decision again if we have not already done
this.
- If we agree that the original decision is wrong and the new
decision is to your advantage, we will send you a new decision and
your appeal will stop. If you do not agree with the new decision,
you can appeal against it.
- If we agree that the original decision is wrong but the new
decision is not to your advantage, we will send you a new decision.
Your appeal will continue against the new decision. You will have
another month to comment on the new decision.
- If we do not change the decision, we will send your appeal, and
an explanation of the law and facts used to make the decision, to
the Appeals Service. We will also include any other relevant
papers.
- A copy of the appeal papers will be sent to you and your
representative if you have one.
- Read the appeal papers very carefully. If you do not understand
something, ask us, an advice centre or solicitor to explain.
- You will also receive a form (TAS1). You must complete this
form and send it to the Appeals Service within 14 days of the date
the form was sent to you. If you do not, your appeal will
stop.
- The form also asks you questions about how you want your appeal
to be looked at. You can choose between an oral hearing and a paper
hearing. If you choose to go to an oral hearing you will be able to
deal with any questions or issues that arise.
Oral hearing
- This is an appeal hearing which you can go to.
- The tribunal may ask you questions
- You can ask questions
- You can take someone with you to represent you
- You can call witnesses to give evidence to the tribunal
- One of our representatives may be at the hearing. They may ask
you questions and call witnesses.
- If you choose an oral hearing but find you cannot go, you must
let the Appeals Service know straight away. You must have a good
reason why you cannot go, such as illness. You may be able to
arrange another date. If you do not let the Appeals Service know
you cannot go to the hearing, the tribunal may hear your appeal
without you.
- Oral hearings are usually open to the public, but anyone who
goes to the hearing will usually be involved in the appeal. You can
ask to have your appeal heard in private.
- If you live abroad and want an oral hearing, let the Appeals
Service know you want to go to the hearing or want to send someone
to represent you. The Appeals Service can arrange for your appeal
hearing to be:
- as near as possible to the place you arrive in Great
Britain
- as near as possible to your representative if you have one
- delayed until you are in Great Britain.
Expenses
- The Appeals Service may pay some of your expenses for going to
the tribunal, for example travel costs. If you want more
information about expenses, contact the Appeals Service office
handling your appeal.
- If you live abroad you will have to pay your own fares to and
from Great Britain. You may be able to get expenses while you are
in Great Britain and the appeal hearing is going on.
Paper hearing
- This is an appeal hearing which you do not go to.
- You should use the form we will send you with the appeal papers
to add any more information which you think will help your
case.
- Do not delay sending information as you will not be told the
date of a paper hearing.
- The appeal will be heard and the Appeals Service will send you
the decision.
- If the tribunal think they need you to go to an oral hearing
they can refuse your request for a paper hearing.
If you choose a paper hearing but change your mind, you can choose
to have an oral hearing. Write to the Appeals Service straight
away.
The result
Whether you have an oral or paper
hearing
- You will be given a decision notice explaining the tribunal's
decision as soon as possible after the appeal hearing. A copy will
be sent to the office that made the original decision.
- You can also ask for a statement of reasons. This gives an
explanation of the tribunal's decision including the facts and the
law used. You must ask for a statement of reasons within one month
of the date you are given or sent the decision notice. You must
have a copy of the statement of reasons if you appeal to the Social
Security Commissioners, See If you disagree with the tribunal's
decision.
- If you want a record of the appeal hearing, you can get a copy
of the record of proceedings up to 6 months from the date of the
hearing.
- If your appeal is successful, we will usually put the decision
right as soon as we receive our copy of the tribunal's decision. We
may not put it right straight away if we appeal to the Social
Security Commissioners.
If you disagree with the tribunal's decision
Appeals to the Social Security
Commissioners
- If you do not agree with the appeal tribunal's decision you may
be able to appeal to the Social Security Commissioners.
- The Commissioners are barristers, solicitors or advocates of
not less than ten years standing and are appointed by the Queen on
the advice of the Lord Chancellor. They are independent of both the
Department for Works and Pensions and the Local Authority.
Who can appeal to the Commissioners?
- anyone who has already appealed to the Appeals Service
- the Local Authority
- the Department for Works and Pensions.
What you can appeal to the Commissioners
about
- You can only appeal to the Commissioners on a point of law. You
cannot appeal to the Commissioners about:
- questions of facts
- a tribunal's findings or conclusions.
How to appeal
- Your decision letter from the Appeals Service will tell you
what to do if you are unhappy with the decision. Read this
carefully. It tells you important time limits for your appeal.
- You cannot appeal unless you first get the statement of reasons
for the tribunal's decision. See The Result section on this
page.
- You should read the statement of reasons carefully. If you
think the tribunal did not apply the law correctly, you can apply
for leave to appeal to the Commissioners. You must do this within
one month of the date the statement of reasons was sent to
you.
- If you appeal to the Commissioners, you must send the statement
of reasons with your application. If you do not, your application
may not be looked at.
- A legally qualified tribunal member will decide if your appeal
can be sent to the Commissioners or if the appeal should be looked
at again by a different tribunal.
- You can ask an advice centre, solicitor or another suitable
person or organisation to help with your application.
Late applications
- Late applications for a statement of reasons or for leave to
appeal to the Commissioners can only be accepted if there are
special circumstances or special reasons that caused the
delay.
- You will need to show why you were not able to make your
request on time.
Other organisations that can
help
Advice centres
Advice centres, like the Citizens Advice Bureau
http://www.nacab.org.uk/ and law
centres, can represent you and help you understand the reasons for
decisions about Housing and Council Tax Benefits. They can also
help you to fill in forms or to write a letter. They will sometimes
go with you to the tribunal that hears your appeal.
It will help the advice centre if you show them any letters you
have about the decision that you think is wrong. Trade unions may
also offer free advice to their members. They may also be able to
speak for you at the tribunal that hears your appeal.
You can find addresses for these organisations in the business
section of the phone book, the Thomson Local directory, the Yellow
Pages or at a library.
Solicitors
You may be able to get advice from a solicitor under the Legal
Advice and Assistance Scheme. You can find out about this from a
solicitor. But if you decide to use a solicitor, the scheme does
not cover the cost of a solicitor to help you at a hearing. You
cannot get any money for things like solicitor's fees from us or
the Appeals Service.
If you live abroad
You can ask someone in Great Britain to act for you. They may be
able to get help from a solicitor under the Legal Advice and
Assistance Scheme. The scheme does not cover the cost of a
solicitor to help you at a hearing.
This information is for guidance only. It does not
cover all the rules for all the benefits for every situation, nor
does it provide a full interpretation of the rules. It should
not be treated as a complete and authoritative statement of the
law.