Appeals and Discretionary Housing Payments
Appeals
There are various regulations that tell us how to work out your benefit, how to pay your benefit and how any overpayment of benefit should be recovered.
You have the right to:
- Know how we have calculated your benefit.
- Ask for an explanation of the decision we have made.
- Ask us to look at your claim again.
- Challenge any decision we have made.
- Ask for an independent appeal tribunal to look at any decision we have made.
The appeals process
If you want more information about our decision you must contact us straight away. You can ask for a written statement of reasons for the decision. The statement of reasons sets out:
- The information we have used to make our decision.
- How your benefit has been calculated.
- The way any overpayment has been calculated (if applicable).
- The relevant Housing Benefit, Local Housing Allowance / Council Tax Benefit Regulations that have been used to reach our decision and the reasons why they do or do not apply.
You can ask us to look at your claim again or you can appeal against our decision, but you only have one month from the date of the decision letter to do either of these things.
If you want us to look at the decision again
You must request this in writing and we shall check if the decision is correct. If the decision is wrong we will change it. If the decision cannot be changed we shall write and inform you. In either case, if you appeal, the one month time limit starts again.
If you want to appeal against the decision
If you want to appeal against the decision you must let us know within one month of the decision letter (or if you asked us to look at the decision again, one month from that decision).
You must write down the decision you are appealing against and the reasons for your appeal and make sure you sign it. If our decision is wrong we shall change it. If the decision cannot be changed the appeals service will then look at your appeal at a tribunal hearing. The tribunal is independent from the council and is made up of legally qualified people trained in Housing Benefit, Local Housing Allowance and Council Tax Benefit.
If your appeal is late you must include an explanation of why you could not appeal within one month.
Please note that some decisions do not carry the right to appeal.
Discretionary Housing Payments
The Discretionary Housing Payment scheme was introduced to assist Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit customers who may need further help with their housing costs.
The Council receives limited funds from the Government for the Discretionary Housing Payment scheme. The amount we can spend on the scheme each year will be restricted and not everyone who claims a Discretionary Housing Payment will be awarded a payment.
Who can claim a Discretionary Housing Payment?
You must be receiving some Housing Benefit, Local Housing Allowance and/ or Council Tax Benefit to be eligible to claim Discretionary Housing Payment but you cannot receive more than the shortfall in your weekly eligible rent or weekly Council Tax liability after taking into account your benefit entitlement.
The amount awarded is entirely at the discretion of the Council but a Discretionary Housing Payment cannot help you with any ineligible service charges such as heating, lighting, hot water and other fuel costs or charges for water rates, sewerage and environmental charges.
You cannot receive a Discretionary Housing Payment to make up for any reduction in other social security benefits as a result of any sanctions applied by the Benefits Agency.
Each case must be considered on its own merits. We will look at the individual circumstances of your claim and will consider the other options available to you before deciding whether to award a Discretionary Housing Payment.
To apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment, you will need to complete a form. You can request a form in person at the Council, or by telephoning the Benefits Service on (01656) 643396)
Once your form has been received, it will be looked at by an officer and you will be notified in writing of the outcome.
If the outcome of your request is unsuccessful, you can ask us to look at you request again, and supply any information in support of your request.
As this fund is discretionary, you do not have the right of appeal against a decision made.
- Last Updated: 19/11/2009
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