What Happens to Payments During Mandatory Reconsideration

Asking for a mandatory reconsideration is free, and it is how you ask the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to look at a benefit decision again before you can appeal¹. For most benefits, though, it does not restart or pause your payment. If your benefit was stopped or reduced, that stays the case while the decision is looked at again.

The exception is Universal Credit. You can receive Universal Credit while you wait for the reconsideration and any appeal, on the basis of looking for work, as long as you follow the rules in your claimant commitment about looking for work². For Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), the position is different: while your ESA decision is being reconsidered, you cannot continue to receive ESA³.

There are no time limits on how long a mandatory reconsideration should take. It can be as much as 12 weeks or even more². You must usually ask within one month of the date of the decision letter¹.

Mandatory reconsideration does not restart or pause most payments

A mandatory reconsideration is asking for a benefit decision to be looked at again before appealing⁵. It is not a new claim, and it does not put your old award back in payment. The decision you are challenging stays in force while it is reviewed.

The outcome can go either way. Your benefit could be continued at the same amount, increased, reduced, or stopped altogether¹. That means asking for a reconsideration carries a risk as well as a chance: if the decision is looked at again, it can be changed against you as well as for you.

There is one important limit on when a mandatory reconsideration applies at all. It is not necessary to challenge a benefits decision made by local authority decision-makers, such as your local council¹. Council Tax Reduction, for example, has its own route: you must ask for it within four weeks of getting your decision⁶.

If you are challenging a decision on a benefit such as Child Benefit or Guardian's Allowance, the DWP will look at it again and send you a letter explaining whether the original decision has been changed⁷. If they decide they cannot change it, they will write to confirm this and tell you if you have a right to appeal⁷.

ESA during mandatory reconsideration: no assessment rate until you appeal

ESA is the benefit where the payment position catches people out most sharply. While your ESA decision is being reconsidered, you cannot continue to receive ESA³. There is no assessment rate paid during the reconsideration period.

There is also an exemption from the reconsideration step itself. You can go straight to appeal if this is the first time you have claimed ESA and you got no award, or you have been found not to have limited capability for work for the first time since receiving an award of ESA². In those cases you do not need to ask for a mandatory reconsideration and should appeal straight away⁸.

If your mandatory reconsideration is unsuccessful, you have one month from the date of the mandatory reconsideration decision letter to appeal⁹. You must have asked for the decision to be looked at again and received the mandatory reconsideration notice first, unless you are exempt from the mandatory reconsideration process¹⁰.

Universal Credit and PIP while a decision is looked at again

Universal Credit is the benefit that keeps paying while a decision is looked at again. You can ask the DWP to look at their decision again if you still think it is wrong, which is called a mandatory reconsideration¹¹. While that happens, you can receive Universal Credit on the basis of looking for work, provided you follow the rules in your claimant commitment about looking for work².

The deadline for asking is within one month of the date on your decision letter¹². If exceptional circumstances meant you could not apply in time, you may still be able to apply for a mandatory reconsideration within 13 months of receiving the decision⁵.

PIP works differently, because the decision being challenged is often the award itself. Asking for a reconsideration does not by itself stop PIP, but if the decision reduced or stopped your award, that is what applies while it is reviewed. If it is unsuccessful, you have one month from the date of the mandatory reconsideration decision letter to appeal⁶.

The benefits that have a mandatory reconsideration step include PIP, Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, ESA, Universal Credit, Carer's Allowance and Pension Credit¹³. The full list also covers Carer's Allowance, Child maintenance, DLA, ESA, Income Support, Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, Jobseeker's Allowance, Maternity Allowance, Pension Credit, PIP, Universal Credit including advance payments, Tax credits and Child Benefit⁶.

Claiming other support while you wait

If your ESA has stopped, you may find you need to claim Universal Credit while you wait for your ESA decision to be reconsidered³. That is a new claim with its own conditions, including your claimant commitment, and it can affect whether ESA is later paid for the reconsideration period.

There is help with housing costs, but it comes with waiting periods. Support for Mortgage Interest is a loan, and for qualifying benefits other than Pension Credit and Universal Credit it is paid after you have claimed any other qualifying benefit for 39 consecutive weeks¹⁴. It is a loan rather than a grant, so it is repaid.

For immediate money problems, the Social Fund offers crisis payments and hardship grants, and you do not have to repay a crisis payment or a hardship grant⁶. The Sure Start Maternity Grant works the same way: you do not need to pay it back³. The Best Start Grant does not need to be repaid because it is a grant¹⁵.

If you are refused a recoverable hardship payment, you can appeal against the decision, but you must first apply for a mandatory reconsideration¹⁶. You can ask for the decision to be reconsidered and should provide any new evidence relevant since you first applied¹⁷.

If the decision goes your way: back payments and arrears

For a successful reconsideration, you get backpay to the date of the original claim¹³.

For Universal Credit work capability decisions, your award will be backdated to the date you claimed, with any amount above what you received, either from ESA or Jobseeker's Allowance, backdated². For ESA, if you have backdated fit notes covering the reconsideration period, ESA can be paid for that period too, unless you claimed another benefit such as New Style Jobseeker's Allowance¹⁰.

If the reconsideration does not go your way, you can appeal. If you disagree with the decision after the mandatory reconsideration, you can appeal¹¹. You must ask for a mandatory reconsideration of the decision before you can make an appeal⁶. You cannot usually ask a tribunal to look at a decision until you have gone through the mandatory reconsideration process⁶. You must make the appeal no later than one month after the date you have been sent the mandatory reconsideration notice⁶.

You can appeal to the Upper Tribunal if you have already had a mandatory reconsideration and then appealed to the First-tier Tribunal¹³.

Where to get free help with a reconsideration

Advicenow is a charity and provides its PIP mandatory reconsideration letter tool for free¹⁸. It also has free tools to help with PIP mandatory reconsiderations and DLA mandatory reconsiderations¹⁴. It publishes dedicated pages for help with mandatory reconsiderations and appeals for PIP, ESA, Universal Credit and DLA¹⁹.

When you ask for a mandatory reconsideration, you will need your national insurance number, the date of your decision letter, why you disagree with their decision, and, if you are late, why¹². If you receive the written statement before the normal one-month deadline, you have an extra two weeks to ask for a mandatory reconsideration; if you receive it after the normal one-month deadline, you have two weeks from the date of the statement¹².

If you missed the deadline for reasons out of your control, such as illness or bereavement, you may still be able to have your decision looked at again⁷. For tax credit overpayments, you can still ask for a mandatory reconsideration within 13 months of your revised notice award¹⁹.

Free legal help is available at the court if your case reaches that stage⁶. For more on the process itself, see Challenging a decision: mandatory reconsideration and redetermination and Appealing to a tribunal.