Appeals

Appealing a Housing Benefit decision

When we have dealt with your claim for Housing Benefit we will send you a decision letter. The letter shows the information we have used to work out your Housing Benefit and you should check it carefully.

If you do not understand our decision or you want to know more, please get in touch with us and ask us to explain it. You should do this within one month of the date on our decision letter.

If you disagree with the decision you can

• Ask us to look again at the decision or
• Appeal to an independent appeals tribunal.

To ask us to look again at our decision you must:

• Write to us within one calendar month of the date on our decision letter
• Make it clear which decision you mean – for example tell us the date on our decision letter and the claim reference
• Say clearly why you think the decision is wrong
• Include any information or evidence you think we have not got

If a month has already passed since our decision you can make a late request for us to look at it again but you will need to tell us why you could not ask within the normal time limit of a month. We cannot always accept a late request.

Appeal to a Tribunal

If we don’t change our decision you can ask for your case to be considered by an independent Appeals Tribunal. Or instead of asking us to change our decision you can ask for your case to go straight to the appeal tribunal – make it clear in your letter that this is what you want.

If you decide to appeal you must ensure:

• Your appeal is in writing and signed by you personally
• You make clear which decision you’re appealing against
• Your letter must say why you think the decision is wrong
• Your appeal is received within one month of the date on our decision letter
• You can include any extra information and evidence you think should be considered

What happens next ?

• We look at our decision to see if we can change it
• If we can we’ll send you a new decision
• If not we prepare papers for the tribunal which explain our decision in detail
• We send copies to you and the Appeal Service
• You get a form which you have to complete and send to the Appeals Service within 14 days to say whether you want your appeal to go ahead and how you want it dealt with
• You can ask for a hearing where you and we both attend and put our case. Or you can ask to have it dealt with without a hearing

Appealing a Council Tax Support decision

 If you disagree with a decision made by us about your Council Tax support claim, you can:

• ask us to explain or look again at the decision
• provide any extra details and evidence to support your claim
• appeal to the Valuation Tribunal service

Valuation Tribunal appeals

You can appeal against our decision not to award you Council Tax support, or appeal against the amount we have awarded you.

You cannot appeal against the Council Tax support scheme itself.

First of all you must ask us to look at the decision again and you can only appeal to the Valuation Tribunal:

• after we have written back to you confirming whether or not we have changed our decision
• if you haven’t heard back from us within two months of us receiving your notice

Your appeal must be made within two months of us confirming whether or not we have changed our decision and not later than four months after we received your notice.You may have to make a new claim if there is a delay of more than one month in providing the information. 

You can find further information about Council Tax support appeals from the Valuation Tribunal Service.