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Welfare Rights Service

Our services are temporarily unavailable to new enquiries

Our Welfare Rights Service and Universal Support team are not accepting new queries from 28 July 2025.  

This temporary closure gives us more time to address the high demand for our services and give our current residents the best support possible. 

We’re committed to resuming our services as soon as we can. Stay updated by checking this page for any changes.  

During this time, you can check if you’re missing out on benefits using our benefits calculator.  

Where you can get help

Universal Credit

Personal Independence Payment

Other disability benefit forms

Debt advice

Challenging a benefit decision

You have plenty of time to challenge a benefit decision. While the decision letter may say that you have one month to challenge it, the law says you have 13 months. 

Challenging the decision is also known as a mandatory reconsideration. You’ll need to give a reason for why your challenge is late, such as needing advice or support to draft the letter due to health conditions.  

When the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) receives a request for a mandatory reconsideration for sickness and disability benefits, they can choose to: 

  • increase your award 

  • keep your award the same 

  • decrease your award – this may mean taking away your award altogether 

Even if the DWP refuses your mandatory reconsideration due to being late, you can still appeal the decision to a tribunal as long as you applied within 13 months of the date the decision letter was sent. 

Find out more about challenging a benefit decision on the Citizens Advice website 

If you need urgent help

If you’ve run out of money for food or gas electricity, you can call Live Well on 0800 470 4831 from Monday to Saturday, 8.30am to 6pm. They may be able to give you a foodbank or fuel voucher. 

If you’ve run out of money as your benefits have stopped, our emergency support scheme may be able to help with one-off payments. Find out about the emergency support scheme 

If you’re at risk of being evicted or do not have enough money to wait until our services are available again, you may be able to get urgent advice from our advice hubs.  

Our advice hubs have a limited number of spaces and may have to direct you to another session or team that can help. To give yourself the best chance of being seen, come early to the drop-in sessions. Find out more about our advice hubs 

If you need help with your mental health, find out where to get crisis support.