Challenge a council tax support decision

What to do if you disagree with a decision on your council tax support claim.

If you disagree with a decision about your council tax support, you must do one or both of the following before you can make a formal appeal:

  • ask us for an explanation of the decision (you must do this within one month of the date on your letter)
  • ask us to look at your application again (known as a grievance)

You must be the person who has applied for council tax support.

We'll send you a statement in writing (called a statement of reasons) to explain how your award has been worked out. When you get the explanation, if you still disagree with our decision or think we have made a mistake, you can ask us to look at it again. 

Challenge a council tax support decision

What happens after your challenge

If we decide our decision is wrong we will change your award and send you a new letter.

If we don't think we have made a mistake we'll let you know in writing. You can then accept our decision or you can formally appeal.

Making a formal appeal

You must appeal directly to the Valuation Tribunal within two months of us writing to you about your grievance. We'll include details on how to do this with your letter.

You can appeal to them about:

  • whether you should get council tax support, or
  • how much council tax support we have awarded you 

They can only look at your personal case, they can't get involved in how we award council tax support in general.

You can find out more information about the appeals process on the Valuation Tribunal website.