Ask us to review a Housing Benefit decision

You can ask us to review a decision on Housing Benefit if you do not agree with it.

You can only ask for a review if you:

• are the person who made the claim
• are representing the person making the claim, for example, a welfare rights officer, a support worker, a custodian of someone’s financial affairs (receiver) or a lawyer.

You can ask for a Statement of Reasons first, or if you want, ask for a Revision of Decision or an Appeal straight away.  

You should ask for a Statement of Reasons or a Revision of Decision within one month of the date you received our initial decision.

If you ask for a Statement of Reasons more than a month after our decision, we can still give you an explanation, but we may not be able to look into it further. 

If you are requesting a Revision of Decision more than one month after the decision was made, you must say why your request has been delayed.

Before you start, you’ll need to register for MyAccount through mygov.scot. If you’ve already registered, you do not need to do it again.

You can ask for a Statement of Reasons, a Revision or an Appeal online.

Ask for a review of a benefit decision

You can send your request in writing to:

Renfrewshire Council Benefits Service
Renfrewshire House
Cotton Street 
Paisley PA1 1AD

Your written request must:

• be signed by the person who has the right of appeal
• include the date the decision was made – you’ll find this on the original decision letter we sent you
• explain why you are appealing or why you think the decision was wrong - it is not enough to say you disagree with it.

If you ask for a Statement of Reasons 

We’ll write to you with more details about how we made our decision.

If you ask for a Revision of Decision

We’ll reconsider the original decision to see if it was correct. 

We’ll write to you afterwards to tell you if it was correct or if we have made another decision.

If we look at your claim again and don't change it, you have the right to appeal within one calendar month of receiving our response. 

If you ask for an Appeal

The Tribunal Service will send you a form to ask if you:

• still want to go ahead with the appeal
• want to attend
• a hearing in person, called an ‘oral hearing’, or prefer a paper hearing which you don’t need to attend
• need an interpreter or signer
• have any other outstanding appeals. 

You must respond within 14 days for your appeal to be considered.

Oral hearing appeals are held in Glasgow, and if you ask for one, you or someone representing you can attend it. 

A legally qualified person chairs the tribunal. They will write to you afterwards and let you know their decision. 

If your appeal is successful, your Housing Benefit claim will be reassessed in accordance with the judge’s decision at the tribunal.

How long it’ll take

We aim to respond to requests for a Statement of Reasons or a Revision of Decision within one month of receiving your request. 

As Appeals are heard by an independent tribunal service, we can’t advise how long it will take.