Disputes and Appeals
Do you think the decision about your Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit is wrong?
Further information about disputing a decision can be obtained by downloading the disputes and appeals booklet from the downloads menu at the right hand side of this page.
If you have received a letter about Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit and you think the decision is wrong, you can ask us to explain it.
If you still think the decision is wrong after we have explained it, you can then:
- Ask us to look at it again or
- Appeal to an independent Tribunal
You must do this within one month of the date on the letter.
If you do, you must contact us straight away either in person, by phone or by writing to us.
If you write to us we will send you a formal written statement of reasons for the decision within 14 days.
If you are unhappy with the decision you can write to us asking us to look at it again. This must be done within one month of the date on the decision letter.
If you have written to us for an explanation of the decision, you will have one month from the date of the decision letter plus the time it takes us to deal with your request for an explanation, to ask us to look at the decision again.
When you write to us, we will look again at our decision. The same person who made the original decision will not do this. Your claim will be checked thoroughly and any more information you have given in your letter will be taken into account.
We may then:
- Decide the decision was correct and not change it or
- Change the decision to your advantage which means you receive more benefit or
- Change the decision to your disadvantage, which means you will receive less benefit.
Whatever the outcome, we will write to you and let you know what we have decided and why we have reached that decision. We aim to do this within 28 days of your request.
If you ask us to look at the decision again and it is not changed in your favour, you can then appeal and your case will be passed to an independent Tribunal. You must appeal within one month of our letter. The Tribunals Service may invite you to a hearing of your case.
If you appeal we will also look at our decision again. If we do not change our decision in your favour, we will automatically pass your case to the Tribunals Service.
If you do, the Council must receive your appeal within one month of the date on the decision letter.
The appeal must:
- Be in writing & signed
- State what decision you are appealing against
- Give the reasons why you think our decision is wrong
Landlords and agents cannot appeal against most decisions made by the Council. They can only appeal against decisions that directly affect them. These are:
- A decision about who the payments of Housing Benefit should go to
- A decision that an overpayment of Housing Benefit is recoverable
- A decision that the overpayment can be recovered from the landlord or agent
Any other decision made by the Council can only be appealed by the claimant or their appointee.
It should be noted that if the Council decide an overpayment can be recovered from the landlord/agent or the claimant, there is no right of appeal against the Council’s decision to recover the overpayment from just one of the parties.
If you want to dispute our decision, download a disputes and appeals form from the downloads list at the right hand side of this page. This has to be signed so you will need to print it off, answer all the questions and sign it.
If you want us to send you a disputes and appeals form contact the Benefits Team:
- By telephone on (01524) 582965 between the hours of 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday
- Customers with hearing difficulties who have a Minicom machine can contact us through Typetalk on 18001 01524 582965
- By personal visit to the Customer Service Centres at Lancaster or Morecambe Town Halls between the hours of 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday
- By post to: Benefits & Customer Services, P.O. Box 4, Town Hall, Lancaster LA1 1QR
- By fax on (01524) 582260
- By email at benefits@lancaster.gov.uk
If your appeal is not received within one month of our decision, you can request an extension of time giving the reasons why you could not appeal within one month. If we accept your reasons, your appeal will continue.
If we do not accept your reasons, your appeal and request for an extension of time will be sent to the Tribunals Service. If the Tribunals Service accept your reasons or consider your appeal has a reasonable chance of success, your appeal will continue.
The Tribunals Service will decide your appeal at an Appeal Tribunal. The Tribunal is made up of a Judge who is independent of the Council.
We aim to pass your case to the Tribunals Service within 28 days of receiving your appeal.
If your case is passed to the Tribunals Service, you will be sent a copy of the Council’s case. The Tribunals Service will then contact you asking you whether you wish your appeal to be dealt with:
- In writing or
- By attending in person
It is important you reply to the Tribunals Service so they have all the details to proceed with your appeal.
If you choose to attend in person, you will be able to deal with any questions or issues that arise. People who attend Tribunals usually do better than those who do not. Tribunals are generally held at the Town Hall in Lancaster.
At the Tribunal, the Judge will look at the evidence, the law and the circumstances at the time we made the decision. They will decide whether the Council’s decision is correct and will notify you in writing of their decision.
The Tribunals Service may pay some of your expenses for going to the hearing, for example travel costs. If you want more information about expenses contact The Tribunals Service, 36 Dale Street, Liverpool, L2 5UQ (Tel. No. 0151 243 1400).
If your appeal is successful, we will usually put our decision right within 7 days of the Tribunal’s decision. We may not put it right if we consider the Tribunal has made an error of law and we decide to appeal to the Upper Tribunal.
If your appeal is unsuccessful you may be able to appeal further to the Upper Tribunal. You should contact the Tribunals Service if you wish to appeal further.
If you want a full explanation of the Appeal Tribunal’s decision you should write to them asking for a statement of reasons.