Appeals
What is an appeal?
We make many decisions about a claim for
Housing Benefits and Council Tax Benefit, including:
- Whether you can claim Benefit at all.
- How much you will get paid.
- How it is paid.
- When benefit starts and stops.
- If you have been paid too much.
- If we can ask you to pay back overpaid Benefit.
- Whether your claim can be backdated.
We always aim to make the right decision,
taking all the benefit laws into account, but you may not agree. If
you wish us to reconsider our descision, you need put this in
writing, stating the reason or reasons you think we should
reconsider, posting it to the address below.
Benefit Services
Ashford Borough Council
Civic Centre
Tannery Lane
Ashford
Kent
TN23 1PL
What happens when I make a
claim?
We will work out how much Housing Benefit
and/or Council Tax Benefit we can pay you, using the
information you put on your claim form and any other evidence you
supply (or we ask for). When we have processed your claim we
will always send you a letter, telling you how much benefit we can
pay you and how we have worked it out. The letter usually has
several pages, because we have to tell you all the information we
have used. Enclosed with the letter will be separate sheet of
paper, telling you:
- How to let us know about changes in your
circumstances (to make sure you get the right level of benefit paid
to you), and
- How to ask us to explain the benefit
decision, or appeal against it.
What if I have a query about how you have worked out my
entitlement?
When you have read the decision letter, you
may not understand why we have made that decision, or why
information has been used in a certain way. You can write in
to ask us to explain the decision; this is called a ‘statement of
reasons’.
You can ask for a statement of reasons at any
time, but remember there is a one month time limit for making an
appeal against a decision, and if you delay asking for the
explanation then you could risk losing your right to appeal (unless
there are special reasons for the delay).
This webpage was updated on 12/17/2007