DWP refusal to decide supersession request

Use this template if all the following apply

• Your client receives universal credit
• Your client has requested a supersession of their award due to a change of circumstances
• The DWP has not replied within a reasonable time, or has stated they will not make a decision 

When not to use

Do not use this letter if:

• a decision has been received refusing to supersede, in which case your client should appeal

The main legal arguments in this template are:

1.  In Wood v SSWP [2003] EWCA Civ 53 (R(DLA) 1/03) the Court of Appeal considered the question of whether the Secretary of State’s decision to refuse to decide a supersession application is a ‘decision superseding an earlier decision’ confirming that it is, except where an application is “hopeless”, “not properly constituted”, “transparently not upon the ground of a relevant change of circumstances, or is otherwise misconceived”.
2. The claimant's supersession request was made due a change of circumstances for the purposes of reg 23 UC etc (Claims and Payments) Regs. It was patently not hopeless or misconceived and so the DWP must decide the claimant's application under s.10 of the Social Security Act 1998 (“SSA”) and provide a decision notice including notification of appeal rights under s.12 SSA
3. The DWP is under a duty to consider all claims for benefit within a “reasonable time” – R(C and W) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2015] EWHC 1607 (Admin). The duty to make a decision within a reasonable time applies equally to s.10 SSA under which Secretary of State may “supersede” any decision made under s.8 or s.10 SSA, as to the analogous provision at s.8 SSA under which the Secretary of State shall “decide any claim for a relevant benefit”.

Information about your client

• name
• address
• national insurance number (NINO)
• date of birth

Background facts

Such as:

• your client's family circumstances and housing
• any vulnerability, disability, or additional costs
• details of your client's supersession request, when and how the request was made
• any financial hardship your client is experiencing as a result of the failure to supersede their award, such as
  • any risk to their being able to afford to pay for their housing, heating or food
  • any need to use food banks
  • any detriment to their health and welfare or to any of their family members' health and welfare

Information relating to the decision

• the date of the supersession request, reason for the request, evidence provided, and how it was made
• how DWP responded, including quotes from your client's UC journal

We've created this guide to help you successfully use our judicial review pre-action letter templates: Guide to using CPAG's judicial review pre-action letter templates

Once you've finished your letter, please email it to us at: [email protected] before you send it to the lawyers acting for DWP/HMRC/your local authority. We'll try to reply as quickly as possible and will do so within 7 days.

Where the need to seek revision before appeal applies, if you apply for a revision of a decision more than 13 months after the date of the decision and your application for a revision raises, in substance, a ground which, if made out, would be capable of being an “any time” ground for revision,  TR & GD v SSWP (PIP, ESA) [2025] UKUT 332 (AAC) has established that there is a full merits right of appeal against the original decision if either:

1. The DWP has considered the application as if it is an application for revision (in which case the notification of that decision counts as a mandatory reconsideration notice ). Your appeal should be made within the normal one-month (or 13-month) time limit and the Tribunal should, “simply proceed to deal with the appeal as it would any other” (§120 of TR and GD); or
2. The DWP has refused to consider the application because it believes it is not made on the basis of official error – in which case the FTT should decide for itself if it thinks that “properly construed, the application is an “any time” grounds application” and if so “the appeal should be admitted” (provided it is in time as measured from the DWP’s notice that the application was rejected).

In such cases, the Tribunal is not limited to just considering whether the DWP was right to conclude there was no ‘official error’ or other ground for an any time revision, but should consider the decision again, taking into account any issue raised in the appeal as if ‘standing in the shoes’ of the original decision maker. The Tribunal is not required to consider any issue not raised by the appeal.  For more information see ‘Any time revision: an appealing prospect?’ in our Welfare rights Bulletin (for subscribers).

However, where your client has not been advised of their appeal rights, or has been told that they do not have a right of appeal, or your client is homeless or destitute, you may also consider sending a pre-action letter.