Housing Benefit Appeals
If you claim housing benefit and disagree with the decision made you can challenge the decision by submitting an appeals form within one month of the date of the original decision. We are responsible for advising you of appeal procedures and investigating each appeal.
Do you understand our decision?
When we deal with your claim for benefit, we send you a benefit decision letter that shows the information we use to work out your benefit. You should check this letter carefully. If you do not understand the decision or you want to know more, you should get in touch with us and ask us to explain it.
You can contact us by phone, in writing or you can call into our office.
If you wish we can send you a Statement of Reasons explaining how we have worked out your benefit. If you want to know more about our benefit decision please get in touch with us within one month of the date on our benefit decision letter. If you ask us more information after this time, we will still explain the decision to you but we may not be able to look at the decision again if you later decide that it is wrong.
What if you think our benefit decision is wrong?
If we have explained our decision to you and you think it is wrong, you can ask us to;
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Look at our decision again: or
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Pass your case to an independent tribunal that is run by the Tribunals Service.
You must write and tell us why you think your benefit is wrong. You must also tell us whether you want us to look at the decision again or pass your case to the Tribunals service.
We must get your letter within one calendar month of the date in the decision letter.
The one month time limit does not include any time it takes us to send you a Statement of Reasons. For example, if the date on your benefit decision letter is 1 August you can dispute the decision up to 1 September. But, if you ask for a Statement of Reasons on 6 August and we send it to you on 10 August you would have an extra 5 days to dispute the decision. The time limit would end on 6 September.
What happens next?
A member of staff who is responsible for making decisions will look at your case again. They will check your claim thoroughly and take account of any more information you have given in the letter. We could then;
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Decide not to change the decision.
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Change the decision and pay you more benefit; or
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Change the decision and pay you less benefit.
We will write to you and let you know what we have decided.
If you asked us to look at your case again and you are still not happy with our decision you can ask us to pass your case to the Tribunals service. You must do this in writing within one calendar month of the date on our benefit decision letter.
If we have not changed the decision or if we have decided to pay you less benefit and you have already asked us to pass your case to the Tribunal Service, we will do this automatically.
The Tribunal Service
If your case is passed to the Tribunal Service you will be sent a copy of the council's case and the Tribunal Service will send you a TAS1 form asking you whether you wish your appeal to be dealt with;
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in writing; or
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by attending in person.
You are allowed 14 days to return your TAS1 form. At the hearing, the Tribunal Service will look at the evidence, the law and the circumstances at the time we made the decision you are appealing against. They will notify you in writing of their decision.