Cases we handle

Housing benefit and council tax benefit:

You can claim housing benefit if you make payments of rent, service charges or other similar payments to a landlord as payment for residential housing in which you live. You can claim it whether or not your landlord is the council, a housing association or a private landlord. The local authority assesses and awards the benefit.

Council tax benefit is awarded by the local authority that is responsible for collecting the tax. You can claim it if you are liable to pay the tax whether you are an owner, a tenant, in temporary accommodation, or a lodger.

Both benefits are "means-tested" i.e. they are calculated according to your income and capital. People receiving income support or income–based jobseeker's allowance are entitled to housing benefit and council tax benefit as well. The local authority decides how much you are entitled to, following a calculation laid down in law. If you think its decision is wrong you can appeal to the Social Entitlement Chamber of the First-tier tribunal.

Who can appeal?

The following can appeal against a decision of a local authority about housing benefit if directly affected by it:

A claimant;
A receiver, attorney, or appointee acting for someone unable to act for herself or himself;
Any one who is the subject of a decision of an authority that an overpayment of benefit or excess benefit is recoverable;
A landlord or an agent acting for a landlord.

You can also appeal against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal to Commissioner the Administrative Appeals Chamber of the Upper Tribunal on a point of law, with permission of the First-tier Tribunal judge or an Upper Tribunal judge.

Appealable decisions

You can appeal against any benefit decision of a local authority except those specifically excluded, which are listed below. You have a right to appeal against a decision revising or superseding a previous decision, or a refusal to revise.

Non–appealable decisions

The following decisions are excluded from appeal by paragraph 6 of Schedule 7 to the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000:

Decisions about inclusion or exclusion of war widow's pensions when calculating benefit entitlement. This is a policy decision of the local authority.
Decisions of, or based on, decisions of rent officers. There are separate rights of appeal to Valuation Tribunals.
Decisions implementing general changes in benefit amounts or entitlements.

The following decisions are excluded from appeal by Schedule 2 to the Social Security and Child Support (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 1999

The exercise of discretion by a local authority whether to recover an overpayment of housing benefit or council tax benefit;
A decision where the local authority makes the decision by reference to another decision under appeal;
A decision to suspend benefit (but not a decision to end it);
A local authority's use of the assessed income figure provided by the Department for Work and Pensions in state pension credit savings credit cases. You would have to appeal against the Department for Work and Pensions calculation instead. You can appeal if the local authority modifies the figure.
Decisions under Parts 10 (claims), 12 (payments) and 13 (overpayments) of the Housing Benefit Regulations and Parts 7 (claims), 9 (awards or payments) and 10 (excess benefit) of the Council Tax Benefit Regulations 2006, except for the following decisions:

Appealable decisions about claims, payments and overpayments

Decisions about dates of claim: regulations 83, 84(1), 85(1), (4) (housing benefit) and regulations 69, 70(1), and 71(1) & (4) (council tax benefit)
Decisions about adjustments to payments because of previous underpayments or overpayments (regulation 93(3) (housing benefit only);
Decisions about payments to landlords (regulations 95, 96) (housing benefit only); decisions about recoverable overpayments (regulation 100) (housing benefit) or excess benefit (regulation 83) (council tax benefit); decisions about who should repay an overpayment (regulation 101) (housing benefit) and regulation 85 (council tax benefit);
Decisions about diminution of capital (adjustment to the amount of capital where a repayment has to be made) (regulation 103) (housing benefit) and regulation 88 (council tax benefit);
Decisions about whether the amount of recoverable overpayment should be reduced by any amount of benefit "properly payable" (regulation 104) (housing benefit) and regulation 89 (council tax benefit).

Note: The references above are to the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 and the Council Tax Benefit Regulations 2006.

There are equivalent regulations in 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 – see links below.

Relevant legislation

Note:
From 3 November 2008 the new Upper Tribunal has taken over the work of the Social Security, Child Support and Pensions Appeal Commissioners. The Commissioners formerly handled appeals from tribunals that are now covered by the Social Entitlement Chamber, and the War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal. The Upper Tribunal also deals with appeals from the Health, Education and Social Care Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal.

This page was last updated 03 November 2008