Disagreeing With Our Decision

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

How to Disagree With Our Decision

If you think that our decision about your housing or council tax benefit is wrong you must write to us within one calendar month of the date of the decision letter asking us to either; explain our decision, look at our decision again or pass your case to an independent tribunal run by the Tribunal Service, you must sign your letter.

If you want to appeal you can download and print out a form found at the bottom of this page under downloadable documents. Fill in the form and write down the reasons for your appeal, you need to sign the form and return it to us immediately.

If you ask us to look at a decision again more than one month after the date of the decision letter but you have special reasons for not asking us in time, you need to tell us about the special reasons. If you do not have special reasons, we may still be able to change the decision, but this will usually only be from the Monday following the date you write to us.

If a change of circumstances could affect your benefit or means you could claim again, you should report it to us straightaway. Do not wait for the appeal hearing.

What Happens When We Receive Your Letter

We will check your claim thoroughly and take account of any more information you have given in your letter. We will offer you an explanation of our decision. We will also look at the decision again if we have not already done so. We will then either; decide not to change the decision, change the decision and pay you more benefit; or change the decision and pay you less benefit. We will write to you and let you know what we have decided.

If you are still not happy with our decision, you can ask us to pass your case to an independent tribunal run by the Tribunal 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.

We will send a copy of the appeal papers to you and your representative (if you have one). You will also receive a form called ‘TAS1’. You must fill in the TAS1 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. Read the appeal papers very carefully. If you do not understand something, ask us, or an advice centre or solicitor, to explain.

The form asks you questions about how you want your appeal to be looked at. You can choose between an oral hearing and a paper hearing.

How the Tribunal Service Deals With Your Appeal

The Tribunal Service will decide on your appeal at a tribunal hearing, this will be either an oral hearing that you can attend or a paper hearing that you do not need to attend. An appeal tribunal is made up of one or two people who do not work for us. Tribunal members will be experts on the issues involved in your appeal, and all tribunals have at least one legally qualified member to help apply the law to your appeal.

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 the appeal tribunal finds that you have been getting too much money your benefit will be reduced.

The Tribunal Service may not be able to accept your appeal if it is received more than one calendar month after the date on the decision letter. They can only accept a late appeal if there are special circumstances for the delay. The Tribunal 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.

You should explain why you could not appeal in time on the appeal 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.

An Oral Hearing

An oral hearing is an appeal hearing which you can go to. At the hearing the tribunal may ask you questions, you can also ask questions. You can take someone with you to represent you and you can call witnesses to give evidence to the tribunal. One of our representatives will be there and he or she may ask you questions and call witnesses.

If you choose an oral hearing but find you cannot go, you must let the Tribunal Service know straightaway. You must have a good reason why you cannot go, such as an 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 then arrange for your appeal hearing to be either as near as possible to the place you arrive in Great Britain, as near as possible to your representative if you have one, or delayed until you are in Great Britain.

A Paper Hearing

This is an appeal hearing that you do not go to. You should use the form we send you with the appeal papers to add any more information that 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. You should write to the Appeals Service straightaway. Please remember that it might be in your interests to go to an oral hearing because you will be able to deal with any questions or issues that arise.

Expenses For Attending an Appeal Hearing

The Appeals Service may pay some of your expenses for going to the hearing, for example, travel costs. If you want more information about expenses, please contact the Appeals Service office that is 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.

How You Will be Told the Outcome of the Appeal

Whether you have an oral or a paper hearing, you will be told of the result the same way. You will be given a decision notice explaining the tribunal’s decision as soon as possible after the appeal hearing. The Appeals Service will send a copy 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. If you want a record of the appeal hearing, you can get a copy of the record of proceedings up to six 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 straightaway if we are not happy with the tribunal's decision and decide to appeal to the Social Security Commissioners.

If Your Appeal is Unsuccessful

The decision we made about your benefit will stay the same and we will commence recovery of any Housing benefit overpayment or excess Council Tax benefit that you owe.

If you disagree with the Tribunal Services decision you can appeal to the Social Security Commissioners. The Commissioners are barristers, solicitors or advocates with at least 10 years’ experience and are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Lord Chancellor. They are independent of both us and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Appeals to the Social Security Commissioners can be made by either anyone who has already appealed to the Appeals Service, us, The Department for work and Pensions or you. You can only appeal to the Commissioners on a point of law. You cannot appeal to the commissioners about a question of fact or a tribunal’s findings or conclusions.

How to Appeal to the Commissioners

Your decision letter from the Appeals Service will tell you what to do if you are not happy with the decision and how to appeal to the Commissioners. Read it 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 whether it 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. If your application for a statement of reasons, or for leave to appeal to the Commissioners is late, it 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.

Where to Get Help

You can get help from the following places.

• a solicitor - you may be able to get advice from a solicitor, but check with them whether you can get any help with your costs or whether you will have to pay. You cannot get any money for things like solicitors’ fees from us or the Appeals Service. If you do decide to use a solicitor, you may not get any help towards their costs if they represent you at a hearing.
• any housing advice service
• Citizens Advice Bureau (visit the website - see the link on the right)
• Age Concern (Freephone 0800 009966, or visit the website - see the link on the right)
• Shelter (Freephone 0808 800 4444, or visit the website - see the link on the right)
• Local Welfare Rights
• Local law centres

They can represent you and help you understand the reasons for decisions about Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit. They can also help you to fill in forms or to write a letter, and they will sometimes go with you to the tribunal that hears your appeal. Sometimes, 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 check your local phone book or library for details of all the above organisations above. For details of solicitors you should contact the Community Legal Service Directory on 0845 6081122.

Download the helpful contact list at the bottom of the page under downloadable documents.

Visit useful websites by clicking on the links on the right under Useful Websites.

How to Comment on Our Service

You should contact us. We would like to know what you think about this website, or about the service we provide to you. Click on the link in the main menu found on the left-hand side of this page for more details about how to contact us or email us benefits.service@islington.gov.uk