Council, Government and Democracy | Councils | Benefit Appeals

Pendle Council Online

Pendle Borough Council
Market Street, Nelson, Lancashire BB9 7LG
Tel: 01282 661661 Fax: 01282 661130

Council, Government and Democracy

Benefit Appeals

If you think the decision about Housing or Council Tax Benefit is wrong

If you have received a decision about Housing or Council Tax Benefit, you may need to know what you can do if you think it is wrong. If you think the decision is wrong, you can ask us to explain it. If you still think it is wrong after we have explained it to you, we will look at it again. For some decisions, you can appeal to an independent tribunal who can change the decision if they agree that it is wrong. There are time limits for asking for decisions to be looked at again, and for appealing.

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 circumstances 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 or excess Council Tax 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 .

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 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 .

Looking 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 Benefit Section know within one 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 the one 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 month time limit starts again from the date of the letter confirming the decision.

Appealing against a 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 at the back of the Appeal leaflet to appeal or write to us telling us what you are appealing against and giving the full reasons for your appeal.

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 the relevant boxes on the form or give as much information in your letter as possible. You can get help from the Benefits section, 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 or the letter.
Send your form or letter 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.
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, 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 when you fill in the appeal form or write in.
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 is 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. You must complete this form and send it to the Appeals Service within 14 days of 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. People who go to their hearing usually do better than those who do not.

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 yourself.
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. If you go to an oral hearing, you will be able to deal with any questions or issues that arise.
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. This is explained later.
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.

Appeals to the Social Security Commissioner

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.
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 may help are listed on our Advice Centres for Housing and Council Tax Benefits page.