Lewes District Council

You should always check carefully, the notification letters we send to you as soon as you receive them.

Have we got some of the information on your claim wrong?

Write to us and tell us what it is we have wrong.  We will look again at your claim and correct the claim if we have made a mistake.

Would you like us to explain a decision?

If you would like to know how we arrived at a decision which affects your benefit claim you can write to us within one month of the date of the letter.  We will write to you to explain it to you.

Do you disagree with the decision we have made?

Then you should write to us within one month to:

• Ask for the decision to be looked at again (reconsidered)
• Appeal against the decision to an independent tribunal

You will need to set out in writing which part of our decision you do not agree with and to sign your letter, even if somebody else needs to write your letter for you, you must sign it yourself. We will also need any additional information or proof from you which will help us to understand why you think our initial decision is not correct.

We will then re-consider your claim.  We will write to you to tell you whether or not we have changed your claim. If we change your assessment, you will have a further month to disagree with any new decision made at this point.

If we do not change your claim and uphold our original decision we will explain why we have made the decision we have.  If you still disagree you will told how to make a formal appeal to the Tribunals Service.

There are certain decisions which we cannot change as they are governed by regulations. For those of working age the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 and Council Tax Benefit Regulations 2006, and for those of pensionable age the The Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006 and The Council Tax Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006. If you are in doubt please contact the benefit section.

Timing is important

If you disagree with a decision you do need to write to us within one month of the date that the original decision was made.  We cannot consider requests made outside of the month time limit unless there is a very good reason for your delay.   If you do make a ‘late appeal’, you will need to tell us why you have taken longer than one month to make the appeal or we may write to you to say that we are not able to look again at the decision. 

Appealing to the Tribunals Service

If you still disagree with us after we have looked again at your claim, or after we have sent you an explanation of what we have done, you have a right to take your appeal to an independent body called the Tribunals Service

The Tribunals Service is not part of the Council.  We will prepare papers to detail the case and will send one copy to you and one to the Tribunals Service. 

They will then arrange a date for the hearing for the case and you will be able to attend this hearing, though this is not compulsory.  You can have an appointee attend the hearing and speak for you if you wish. 

The chairman of the tribunal hearing will listen to both sides and then he will decide whether our decision is correct or whether it should be changed.