How To Appeal For Council Tax Benefit In London
The local tax system in England is known as Council Tax and people who cannot afford to pay this tax can claim Council Tax Benefit. This claim can be made with the local council, however, sometimes a person feels that the council has not calculated his or her benefit correctly. In this case every citizen is given a lawful right to appeal. However, not many people know about the process of making an appeal.Therefore those who are looking for some guidance in this regard can take benefit from this guide.
Instructions
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1
Contact Local Council:
The first thing that a person should do if he or she believes that the local council has not made the right decision, is to get in touch with the council as soon as possible and request them to reconsider their pronouncement. The petitioner can make such kind of request within one month after receiving the decision of the council over his or her benefit. To know about your local council, visit this link. -
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Request to Reconsider Decision:
Request to reconsider the decision can be submitted in writing, by telephone or through an email. In addition to this, a petitioner also has the right to enquire on which grounds or points the council has taken that decision.
If the council fails to change its decision and the petitioner still disagrees with them, then he or she can go for an appeal within one month from the date of receiving the new notification. -
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Make an Appeal:
- Make the formal appeal in writing to the local council.
- Write all the reasons why you believe that the council's decision is wrong, as the tribunal does not consider something that is not specified in a written appeal.
- Petitioner must not forget to sign the letter.
- This appeal should be submitted within one month of the date of the petitioner’s decision letter.
- This appeal will be heard by an independent tribunal that will comprise of people who have no biases in favor of the local authority.
- Regarding appeal, a petitioner can also take independent advice from a solicitor or Citizens' Advice Bureau.
- In case if a petitioner fails to submit his appeal to the tribunal within one month's then he or she has to give a solid reason to justify the delay. These reasons could be serious illness, postal strike, death or some other special circumstances that impeded the applicant from submitting the appeal on time.
- However, the appeal will not be accepted by the tribunal under any circumstance if petitioner has made an appeal after 13 months or more since the date on the council’s decision letter.
