DWP failure to decide a mandatory reconsideration request made by telephone

You can use this template if all of the following apply:

• your client requested a mandatory reconsideration of a universal credit (UC) decision by telephone
• DWP have failed to record or process the telephone request properly and no mandatory reconsideration decision has been provided at all or within a reasonable timeframe
• your client is experiencing financial hardship as a result
• your client meets the basic conditions of entitlement for UC

This letter assumes (so can be changed):

• your client has no income without UC
• your client's claim has been rejected entirely (not just partially)

Do not use if the following applies:

• your client has not provided DWP with the information or evidence needed to make a decision
• your client did not request a mandatory reconsideration by telephone
• your client has received a mandatory reconsideration decision
• the delay has been very short (less than a few weeks) or your client has received an alternative benefit that meets their needs
• your client has already appealed the decision to the First-tier Tribunal

The main legal arguments in this template are:

DWP have a duty to consider claims within a "reasonable time" (R(C and W) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2015]). This duty applies equally to mandatory reconsiderations under s.9 of the Social Security Act 1998 and what counts as "reasonable time" depends on all circumstances, including impact on the claimant. 

Mandatory reconsiderations can be requested by telephone according to DWP's own publicly available guidance. This guidance represents DWP policy and under R (Lumba) v SSHD [2011], decision-makers must follow published policy unless there are good reasons not to. Failing to record and process the claimant's request fails to apply DWP's guidance.

Information about your client:

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

Background facts, such as:

• family situation
• nationality/immigration status
• housing details
• any health difficulties or disabilities your client has
• any capacity issues or vulnerability your client has
• what financial hardship your client is experiencing as a result of the subject matter of the mandatory reconsideration request
• any risk that your client will be unable to afford to pay for their housing, heating or food, any need to use food banks
• any detriment to your client's health and welfare or to any of their family members' health and welfare

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.

Mandatory reconsiderations: official error, refusal and delay

Where the need to seek revision before appeal applies (not HB - see JR145: Local authority refusal to award housing benefit for mesne profits), 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.

When working out whether a delay is 'unreasonable', consider that:

"the average (median) waiting times for mandatory reconsiderations are 57 calendar days for PIP, 51 calendar days for universal credit, and 10 calendar days for employment and support allowance (ESA) work capability assessments."

Tom Pursglove House of Commons written answer 31/10/22