Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support

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Revisions and Appeals

If you do not understand your benefit award or think that your award is not correct, please contact us. We will be happy to explain the contents of the letter to you  and if there has been a mistake, we can correct it for you.

Alternatively you may be able to ask for a written statement or submit a reconsideration request or lodge an appeal

Written Statements

You can submit a request for a written statement at anytime after a decision has been made to the address detailed below. This must be signed by you so we cannot accept telephone calls or emails.

If you intend to request that the relevant decision be reconsidered or you wish to lodge an appeal, your request for a written statement should be made within a month of the relevant decision.

If the request is made within a month of the relevant decision, the time taken to deal with the request will not count towards the month time limit.

Our address is:

Benefits, Revenues and Customer Contact

Accrington Town Hall
Broadway Offices
Accrington
Lancashire
BB5 1EZ

Requests for Reconsideration

A request for reconsideration should be made in writing, contain the reasons why you think the decision is wrong and should be submitted within one month of the date of the letter notifying you of the decision.

If we consider the decision we have made is correct, we will write and inform you, giving you the timescale left for you to appeal this.

If we revise the decision, we will change it and send you a new decision letter with appeal rights.

Appeals

Most decisions made on a claim can be appealed.

An appeal must be lodged within one month of the relevant decision letter.

Your appeal must be made in writing, be signed by you and give the reasons why you disagree with the decision that we have made.

If your appeal is late you must also include an explanation of why you did not appeal within the one month time limit.

When we receive your appeal, we will reconsider the decision and if we cannot change our decision in your favour, we will send details of your appeal to Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS.)

If the appeal is late, HMCTS will decide whether the late appeal can be accepted late.

The Tribunal Service

If the decision that you appeal against cannot be revised in your favour, we will make a submission to HMCTS

You will also receive a copy of our submission, attached will be a form that you will need to complete and return to HMCTS.

Amongst other things the form will ask if you want to attend the hearing or if you want your appeal to be heard without you being present (this is called a ‘paper hearing’).

HMCTS will write to you to let you know when the tribunal will be held.

Tribunals are held locally; the nearest venue is in Blackburn, they are independent from the Council and are usually made up of one legally qualified panel member sitting alone.