Council Tax Support and Housing Benefit Appeals

Time limits

It is important to remember the time limits for asking for revisions and for appealing.

If you decide you want us to explain our decision or look at the decision again, or if you want to appeal against it, you must do so within one month of the date on the decision notice. Special circumstances such as serious illness may extend the one-month time limit, but you should contact us as soon as possible to explain these circumstances.

Asking us to explain our decision

Telephone or write to us as soon as possible and we will explain how we have reached our decision. If this is not clear enough and you want more details, you can ask for a written statement of reasons. Remember you must ask for this within the one-month time limit.

Asking for a Revision

If you ask us to look at the decision again, it will be checked by a different member of staff. We will then write to you and tell you whether we have changed our original decision. If the decision cannot be changed, our letter will confirm the original decision and say why it cannot be changed. If you still disagree with our decision, you can ask for it to be looked at by an independent tribunal. You must write to ask for this within one month of the date of our letter confirming our original decision.

Appealing to an independent tribunal

An appeal tribunal is like a court of law. It is run by the Appeals Service. If you would like an independent tribunal to look at our decision, you can ask us to send your appeal straight to the Appeals Service. Before we do this we will look at the original decision to see if it can be changed.

We will send it to the Appeals Service if we still feel unable to change our decision.

Apply for an Appeal

For more information on appeals and advice, please see our Council Tax and Benefits how to appeal leaflets.  If you would like to appeal, please fill in the following form