Making Claims and Appealing Decisions
If you are looking for information on how to claim a particular benefit, advice can be found on the DirectGov site. If you go to our Welfare Benefits Information page and click on the link for the benefit you need information about, you should be taken straight to the relevant page.
Generally you can either make a benefit claim online, over the phone or by sending in a paper form. If you decide to claim online or over the phone, make sure you have all the documents you will need to hand before you start. Once you have applied you should receive a decision letter. This will set out what the benefits office has decided regarding your claim, whether you have been awarded any benefits and if so how much, and what you need to do next. (Read more) If you are unhappy with their decision you have a month to ask the benefits office to explain or reconsider it. If you are still unhappy with the reconsidered decision, you may then be able to appeal, as long as you do this within a month. You can request an explanation or reconsideration of any decision, but there are some benefits decisions that you cannot appeal against. These include Budgeting Loans, Crisis Loans and Community Care Grants.
Information on how to make an appeal or request an explanation or reconsideration is usually included in your decision letter. Usually you will need to contact the office who dealt with your claim for an explanation of their decision or to ask them to reconsider your case. If you have any extra evidence that you think they should consider then you should include this with your request. The decision will be considered by someone at the office who was not involved in making the decision on you original claim.
When you appeal, the case may be passed to the Tribunals Service
http://www.tribunals.gov.uk/ who will arrange a tribunal to hear your case. They will consider all the evidence at a hearing and come to a decision. You and a representative can attend this hearing, but you do not have to if you don’t want to. Often you may be more likely to be successful in your appeal if you attend the hearing, so this may be worth bearing in mind.
More detailed information about what will happen during the hearing and the rest of the appeals process can be found at:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/gl24dwp.pdf You may want to get advice on your appeal to make sure you have filled all the forms out correctly and provided the necessary evidence to fully support your claim. You can contact Citizen’s Advice (
http://www.tamesidecab.org.uk/) for help and advice, or use the Tameside Council Welfare Rights Service (
http://www.tameside.gov.uk/welfarerights). You could also contact Community Legal Advice (
http://www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk/gateway/benefits.jsp) or a local Law Centre for legal assistance if you wish to take your case to a tribunal. A list of Law Centres in the North West is provided at
http://www.lawcentres.org.uk/directory/location/North-West/.