Benefits Rights
Personal Independence Payment, Universal Credit, Carer's Allowance, Child Maintenance, and the deadline-tracked appeal rights that turn a wrong DWP decision into an overturned one.
Covered in this guide:
DWP refuses about three in four PIP applications first time. About two in three appeals are overturned at tribunal. The gap is procedural: people miss the 1-month Mandatory Reconsideration deadline, or stop after MR because nobody told them the tribunal win-rate is ~58%. Section 9 of the Social Security Act 1998 is the master statute — combined with the Social Security and Child Support (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 1999, it gives every claimant a right to challenge any benefits decision in writing.
Key Laws
Social Security Act 1998
c. 14
Master statute for revision, supersession, and appeal of benefits decisions
Welfare Reform Act 2012
c. 5
PIP framework (ss.77-95); Universal Credit framework (ss.1-43)
Social Security (PIP) Regulations 2013
SI 2013/377
Daily-living and mobility descriptors; reg.4(2A) reliability test; reg.7 'more than 50% of days' rule
Social Security and Child Support (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 1999
SI 1999/991
MR procedure (reg.3); late-MR extension of time (reg.5)
Child Support Act 1991
c. 48
CMS calculation, revision (s.16), supersession (s.17), variation (s.28A)
Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992
c. 4
Carer's Allowance (s.70); overpayment recovery (SSAA 1992 s.71)
PIP Mandatory Reconsideration
About 700,000 Mandatory Reconsiderations are filed each year for Personal Independence Payment. Only one in five succeeds at MR stage. But of those who push on to the First-tier Tribunal, around 58% w...
Universal Credit Overpayment Rebuttal
Since the Welfare Reform Act 2012, all Universal Credit overpayments are recoverable — even ones caused entirely by DWP's own mistake. That's the s.71ZB regime, and it's harsher than the old Income Su...
Carer's Allowance Overpayment Rebuttal
Carer's Allowance has a cliff-edge earnings rule: earn £1 over the weekly threshold (currently £196 net of allowable deductions, 2026/27) and you lose the whole allowance for that week. There is no ta...
Child Maintenance Variation or Revision
The Child Support Act 1991 sets out two routes to change a CMS calculation: revision (s.16, within 30 days, for errors in the original calculation), and variation (s.28A, anytime, for special expenses...