Challenge a benefit decision

1Using the form

2Declaration

3About you

4About the claimant

5The decision you disagree with

6The decision you disagree with (continued)

7Supporting documents and other information

If you disagree with our decision about your Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support, you can use this form to challenge it.

Only certain people can challenge this decision. This is usually only the claimant but a landlord can if

our decision is not to pay Housing Benefit to the landlord, or
we ask the landlord to pay back any Housing Benefit we have overpaid.

This form will ask you to provide

If you are the claimant

Your details including National Insurance number.
Which decision you would like to challenge and your reasons for doing so.
The date on the top of your decision letter.
Any proof or information to support what you are telling us.

If you are a landlord

Your name and contact details.
The full name and address of the claimant.
The Housing Benefit reference number (if known).
Which decision you would like to challenge and your reasons for doing so.
The date on the top of the decision letter.
Any proof or evidence to support what you are telling us.

Please have this information ready as pages time-out after one hour.

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Privacy Statement

To provide this service Thanet District Council will collect and process personal information. We may check some of the information with other sources (e.g. government departments and other councils) to verify your identity and ensure that the information you have provided is accurate.

Your personal information is being processed because it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation or for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.

Please refer to our Corporate Privacy Notice for further details on how we process your personal information and your rights. This is also available in other formats (e.g. print).

Declaration

Are you a claimant, filling in this form on behalf of a claimant or a landlord?

I am a claimant and I'm filling in this form for myself

I'm filling in this form on behalf of the claimant

I am a landlord

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Declaration (claimant)

Please check the box below to confirm that you have read, understand and agree to the following statements before completing this form:

I confirm the details I will give are correct and that the documents I will upload as proof are original copies and have not been edited in any way.
I understand that if I give information that is false this could lead to a penalty or legal proceedings being taken against me.
I understand my data may be shared with other departments as permitted by law.

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Declaration (landlord)

Please check the box below to confirm that you have read, understand and agree to the following statements before completing this form:

I confirm the details I will give on this form are correct and true.
I understand that if I give information that is false this could lead to a penalty or legal proceedings being taken against me.
I understand my data may be shared with other departments as permitted by law.

A landlord can only challenge decisions about who the benefit is paid to and who an overpayment is recovered from.

If you disagree with anything else about the claim, the request for the reconsideration must be made by the claimant. You can support them to do this (providing you have their consent) by selecting the option "I'm filling in this form on behalf of the claimant".

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Declaration (completing on behalf of someone else)

Please check the box below to confirm that you have read, understand and agree to the following statements before completing this form:

As far as possible, I will confirm with the person claiming that the answers I will give on this form are correct and that the documents I will upload as proof are original copies and have not been edited in any way.
I understand that if I give information that is false this could lead to a penalty or legal proceedings being taken against me.
I understand my data may be shared with other departments as permitted by law.

Please note that we will send any correspondence about this request to the claimant. If you have signed authority to act on the claimant's behalf, you can attach this to this form later and we will contact the claimant to check this.

Declaration(Required)

I understand and accept the above declaration

I am filling in this form on behalf of(Required)

As they cannot fill in the form because(Required)

Full name of the person completing this form(Required)

Relationship to the person claiming(Required)

Contact email address or phone number(Required)

If we need to check any of the details given, we may need to contact you

About you (the claimant)

About you (the landlord)

Title (for example Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss)(Required)

First name(Required)

Last name(Required)

Contact phone number(Required)

We ask for your phone number so we can call you or send you important text messages (if we need to) about your claim

Please enter your email address(Required)

Enter Email Confirm Email

We will use your email address to send the receipt of your form, including the form reference number. This may include personal data. We will also use your email address to contact you about your Council Tax account.

Would you like to receive your Council Tax bills by email?(Required)

Yes

You can receive your Council Tax bills by email rather than post. We will send all future Council Tax bills to the email address you have given above. This service is only available to people who are named on the bill. If you change your email address you must let us know straight away. You can opt out of this at any time at thanet.gov.uk/paperless

Company name (if applicable)

Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support reference number (if known)

National Insurance number(Required)

About your address

Postcode(Required)

Search Postcode

Addresses

Select the address from the list or manually enter the address.

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address(Required)

Address(Required)

House name or number Address line 1 Address line 2 Town or city Postcode

About the claimant

Housing Benefit reference number

Full name of the claimant(Required)

Claimant address

Postcode(Required)

Search Postcode

Addresses

Select the address from the list or manually enter the address.

This field is hidden when viewing the form

address(Required)

Address(Required)

House name or number Address line 1 Address line 2 Town or city Postcode

The decision you disagree with - landlord

What type of decision are you challenging?(Required)

Who the Housing Benefit is being paid to

Who an overpayment is being recovered from

Who do you think Housing Benefit should be paid to and why?(Required)

Why do you think the overpayment should be recovered from someone else?(Required)

The decision you disagree with

Which decision do you disagree with?(Required)

Housing Benefit only

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support

Council Tax Support only (this includes Second Adult Rebate)

Date of the decision you disagree with(Required)

Day

Month

Year

This is the date on the notification letter we have sent you

If it has been over a month since the date of your decision letter, please tell us why you haven't contacted us sooner(Required)

The decision you disagree with (continued)

What type of decision are you challenging?(Required)

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Failure to provide information or proof

Please tell us why you didn't provide all the proof and information we asked for within one month(Required)

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Backdating refusal

Please tell us why you didn't apply earlier(Required)

Please note that not knowing that you could claim is not a valid reason for asking for your claim to be backdated

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Start date or date of change

Why do you think the date is wrong?(Required)

What date do you think we should be using?(Required)

Day

Month

Year

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Benefit overpayment

What do you disagree with?(Required)

Why do you think the overpayment amount is wrong?(Required)

Why do you think the overpayment should be recovered from someone else?(Required)

Please see our Housing Benefit overpayments page for information about how we recover overpayments and to find out how you can pay. Arranging a different way of paying back your overpayment is not a challenge and you do not need to complete this form; please see the advice on our webpages instead.

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Income or capital (savings and investments) calculation

Why do you think your income or capital (savings and investments) has been used incorrectly?(Required)

What do you think we should have used?(Required)

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Tenancy type or rent details

Why do you think your liability to pay rent or the amount of rent used in the calculation of your award is wrong?(Required)

What do you think the decision should be?(Required)

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Why you disagree with our decision

Please tell us what you disagree with about the decision(Required)

What do you think should be changed?(Required)

Supporting documents and other information

If you have any proof or evidence to support what you are telling us, please upload this. If you have no proof or evidence, please leave the page blank and click the next button to continue with the form.

If you are sending proof later, please use the online form on our website at thanet.gov.uk/proof

Please upload any proof or evidence to support what you are telling us

Drop files here or

Max. file size: 50 MB, Max. files: 5.

If you are uploading photographs of documents, please make sure you take a photo of every relevant page, that they are clear and that any words or figures can be easily read.

Please use this box to tell us any other information

If you have no further information to give us, leave the box blank

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Staff ID

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