Disputing a decision

If you think the decision about your Housing Benefit is wrong, you can ask us to look at it again (a revision), or appeal. You must do this within one month of the date of the council's decision.

Request for reconsideration/appeal form

You can ask for an explanation.

You need to do this within a month of the decision being issued.

You can ask us to look at it again (a revision)

You will need to tell us why you think the decision is wrong, and you must do this within a month of the decision. If you asked for an explanation, you have a month from the date of the decision, plus the time it took us to provide the explanation.

The time limit can be extended for up to 13 months if there were special circumstances to support why you couldn't make the request earlier.

You can appeal

You need to do this within a month of the decision (or longer if you asked for an explanation first), or within a month of any decision about a request to look at a decision again (a revision). We will look at everything again, but if we still cannot agree, we will send your appeal to an independent tribunal. Once the tribunal receive your appeal, they will arrange a hearing to consider it. You will be given the option of attending.

The time limit can be extended for up to 13 months if there were special circumstances to support why you couldn't make the request earlier.

Disputing a Council Tax Support decision

You will need to tell us why you think the decision is wrong and we will look at the decision again. If we cannot change the decision in your favour, or if we fail to reply to you within 2 months, you can appeal direct to The Valuation Tribunal Service (VTS).

You cannot appeal direct to VTS until after you have asked us to look at a decision again.

If we have failed to reply to you, your appeal must be submitted to The VTS no later than 4 months from the date we received your request to look at the decision again. There are no time limits to ask for an explanation of a Council Tax Support decision.