A refusal is a decision about a form, not a verdict on you. Two free stages exist to challenge it, both with a one-month deadline — and the first stage carries a risk worth understanding before you start it.
Ask for a mandatory reconsideration first
Before you can appeal, the decision usually has to be looked at again. That stage is called mandatory reconsideration, it is free, and GOV.UK names Attendance Allowance among the benefits it applies to. You can ask by phone, by letter, or by filling in and returning a form.
You can ask for one if you think the office made an error or missed important evidence, if you disagree with the reasons given, or if you want the decision looked at again (GOV.UK, Challenge a benefit decision (mandatory reconsideration): eligibility, checked 1 November 2026).
Some decisions cannot be reconsidered and some go straight to appeal. Your original decision letter says which applies to you.
The deadline is one month, from the letter
You usually need to ask within one month of the date on your decision letter. If you are writing, GOV.UK is specific that the letter or form has to arrive inside that month rather than merely be posted, so posting on the last day is not the same as meeting the deadline.
GOV.UK allows a later request if you have a good reason, and gives being in hospital or having had a bereavement as its examples (GOV.UK, Challenge a benefit decision (mandatory reconsideration): eligibility, checked 1 November 2026).
There is a separate, shorter clock if you first ask for a written explanation. You can request a written statement of reasons from the office that decided your claim, but you must then ask for reconsideration within 14 days of the date on that statement.
Reconsideration can make an award worse
This is the part to weigh before you start, and it applies to anyone who already holds an award and is challenging the rate rather than a refusal. Asking for reconsideration reopens the whole claim, not only the part you disagree with.
GOV.UK states it plainly: someone will look at your whole benefit claim again, and your benefit may stop, stay the same, increase or decrease (GOV.UK, Challenge a benefit decision (mandatory reconsideration): eligibility, checked 1 November 2026).
When to take advice rather than act. If you were refused outright there is nothing to lose, because there is no award to reduce. If you were awarded the lower rate and think you should have the higher one, the position is different: a reconsideration could end the award altogether. That is the one situation on this page where a free adviser should see your figures before anything goes in.
What to send, and what to leave out
You need to give the date of the original decision, your name and address, your date of birth and your National Insurance number, then explain which part of the decision is wrong and why. Evidence is optional, and GOV.UK asks you to include only what you have not already sent.
Send only material you have not already sent, and write your full name, date of birth and National Insurance number at the top of each item. GOV.UK lists four things not to include: general information about your condition such as factsheets, medical certificates or sick notes; appointment cards or letters about medical appointments, unless you could not claim because you were at the appointment; letters about tests you are due to have; and bus or train tickets to prove you made a journey.
You cannot claim back the cost of any evidence you pay for (GOV.UK, Challenge a benefit decision (mandatory reconsideration): eligibility, checked 1 November 2026). Our Attendance Allowance pitfalls guide covers what a decision maker is actually reading for, which is usually where the original claim went wrong.
If the reconsideration goes against you
You can then appeal to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal, which is supported by HM Courts and Tribunals Service and is independent of government. You cannot appeal until the mandatory reconsideration notice arrives, and you usually have one month from the date on it.
Appealing is free. A judge and one or two experts decide the case, and who the experts are depends on the benefit being appealed (GOV.UK, Appeal a benefit decision, checked 1 November 2026). Our how long it takes page has the latest tribunal waiting times and the DWP’s 28-day response deadline, and the PIP tribunal page describes the hearing itself.
You choose whether to attend. GOV.UK states that if you do not, the appeal is decided on your appeal form and any supporting evidence you provide, so attending is the only way to answer a question the tribunal has about your day.
What happens at a hearing
The tribunal listens to both sides before deciding. If you attend you get the chance to explain the appeal, and the judge or the experts will ask you about your condition or circumstances. The office that made the original decision may attend and ask questions, but it does not decide the outcome.
Evidence that helps includes a report or care plan from a specialist, therapist or nurse, and a letter from someone who knows you. Send it as early as you can so the tribunal has time to read it.
Support can be arranged — an interpreter, a hearing loop, an accessible room — and you request it when you make the appeal rather than on the day. You cannot bring your own interpreter (GOV.UK, Appeal a benefit decision, checked 1 November 2026).
If you disagree with the tribunal
There are two further routes, and both are narrower than the stages before them. You can ask for the decision to be set aside if something went wrong with the process, or appeal to the Upper Tribunal — but only on a point of law, not because you disagree with the outcome.
An Upper Tribunal appeal has to argue that the tribunal did not give proper reasons, did not back its decision with facts, or did not apply the law properly. It runs in three steps, beginning with a request for full written reasons within one month of the decision.
GOV.UK states legal aid may be available when you appeal to the Upper Tribunal, which can help pay for legal advice (GOV.UK, Appeal a benefit decision, checked 1 November 2026). It says nothing either way about the earlier stages, which are designed to be used without a lawyer.
Where to get help, free
You do not need a solicitor for either of the first two stages. GOV.UK points to Citizens Advice, Advicenow and Advicelocal for free help and advice (GOV.UK, Challenge a benefit decision (mandatory reconsideration): eligibility, checked 1 November 2026), and your local council’s welfare rights team may be able to take a case on from start to finish; ask about their capacity.
They are better placed than any website for this, because they can read your actual decision letter and your actual evidence. What we can do is explain the shape of the process; what they can do is tell you whether your particular challenge is worth making.
Before you start again
If the refusal turned on how the form described your day, the fix is the same whether you reconsider, appeal, or claim again later. Describe a bad day, say how often bad days happen, and be specific about the nights.
Our wording checker takes a sentence and tells you which of the four things a decision maker reads for are missing from it. Nothing you type leaves your browser.