Housing

Housing Benefit: Appealing against our Decision

What you can do if you think a decision is wrong

If you think a decision made on your claim is wrong you have the right to:

ask for an explanation of our decision
ask us to reconsider our decision
appeal against our decision

Asking for an explanation of our decision

If you want us to explain our decision you must write to us within one calendar month of the date on the letter giving our decision. Your letter must:

identify the decision that you want us to explain
include the date of the decision that you want us to explain
be signed by you - even where someone else has written the letter on your behalf.

Asking us to reconsider our decision

If you want us to reconsider our decision you must write to us within one calendar month of the date on the letter giving our decision. Your letter must:

identify the decision that you want us to reconsider
include the date of the decision that you want us to reconsider
give the reason(s) why you think our decision is wrong
be signed by you - even where someone else has written the letter on your behalf.

If you do not write to us within the one-month time limit your letter must ask for an extension of the time allowed to request a reconsideration and include reasons for the delay in making your request.

If you have any evidence to support your reasons you should provide it with your letter.
A different person to the one who made the original decision will deal with your letter and write to you with our decision, normally within 14 days.

If you are still not happy with our decision you will have one month from the date of our response to appeal. If you do this, your appeal will be forwarded to the independent Appeals Service for them to deal with.

Making an Appeal

If you want to appeal against our decision you must contact us within one calendar month of the date on the letter giving our decision.

You can use the following form to make your appeal:

Housing Benefit Appeal Form (.pdf 36KB)

You may find it useful to read our Help before downloading information.

Alternatively, you can write to us. Your letter must:

identify the decision that you want to appeal against
include the date of the decision that you want to appeal against
give the reasons why you think our decision is wrong
be signed by you - even where someone else has written the letter on your behalf.

If you do not write to us within the one-month time limit your letter must ask for an extension of the time allowed to appeal and include reasons for the delay in making your request.

If you have any evidence to support your appeal you should provide it with your letter.

If we have previously reconsidered our decision we will forward your letter to the Appeals Service. If no reconsideration has taken place we will do so and write to you with our decision. If the decision is not changed, or is changed but results in less benefit, your letter will be forwarded to the Appeals Service.

If the decision is changed in your favour, your appeal will end. You will still have appeal rights but the process will start again with the new decision.

This page last updated: 28/03/2008