Benefits Appeals
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 can ask us to explain the reasons
for the decision and 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.
Let the office that sent you the
decision letter know, 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, contact the
Benefits section for a leaflet.
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
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 office shown
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 the 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
- 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 of Social Security and the
Local Authority.
Who can appeal to the Commissioners?
Appeals can be made by:
- anyone who has already
appealed to the Appeals Service
- the Local
Authority
- the Department of
Social Security.
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.
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 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.
Suffolk County Social Care's Customer
First scheme may also be able to help.
Visit their website
www.suffolkcc.gov.uk ,or contact them
on
08456 023 023
Customer.First@socserv.suffolkcc.gov.uk
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.
For details of solicitors and advice
centres, contact:
The Legal Aid Board
Franchise Development Group 85
Grays Inn Road
London WC1X 8AA
Freephone 0500 282 3000
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.
You can contact the benefits
department as follows:
benefits@midsuffolk.gov.uk
08456 066067
Visit the Benefits Office, or
Benefits office
Mid Suffolk District Council
131 High Street
Needham Market
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP6 8DL