Independent Review Service  for the Social Fund   The IRS Review    Homepage   Mythbusters     Your Right to Apply for an Independent Review How to Apply for a Review What the Review Involves Alternative Services Available The Inspector will Decide How long will it Take? The IRS Review Your Right to Apply for an Independent Review You have the right to ask for an independent review of the decision on your community care grant, crisis loan, budgeting loan or overpayment decision if: you have had a decision about your social fund application; and the decision has been looked at again by a reviewing officer; and you are still not satisfied with it. This can be because you have been refused payment or because the payment you received was not enough. How to Apply for a Review To apply for an independent review you need either to complete the tear off portion from leaflet IRS1, or write a letter, and send it to: The Independent Review Service, FREEPOST, 4th Floor, Centre City Podium, 5 Hill Street, Birmingham B5 4UB. You do not need a stamp. The Jobcentre Plus office should send leaflet IRS1 to you with the decision made by the Reviewing Officer. IRS1 gives further information about the review but the main points are that you can ask for an independent review about; community care grants crisis loans budgeting loans overpayments from the social fund. You can ask for an independent review after you have had your application reviewed at the Jobcentre Plus. It is important that you do each of the following as not doing so may delay your review: Make your request within 28 days of the Reviewing Officer's decision. The Inspector can allow more time if there are special reasons. You will need to tell us why your request has been made late. Say why you disagree with the Reviewing Officer's decision. Sign your review request and send it to us at: The Independent Review Service, FREEPOST, 4th Floor, Centre City Podium, 5 Hill Street, Birmingham B5 4UB. We will then ask Jobcentre Plus to send all the papers about your social fund application to us. Don't worry if you have already sent your request for an independent review to Jobcentre Plus. They will forward it to us together with the paperwork. What the Review Involves Your case will usually be given to an Inspector on the day the paperwork from JobCentre Plus arrives at this office. The Review Process Step 1 – The Inspector dealing with your case will send a letter to you. It gives important information about your case. It also sets out the facts relating to those issues and any questions the Inspector has. Step 2 – You then have the opportunity to comment on your case and answer any questions raised. You can also give the Inspector any extra information that you think is important. Step 3 – When the Inspector receives your response he or she will make a decision on your case. How long will it take? Once the IRS receives your papers from Jobcentre Plus, the whole process should take no longer than 12 working days. Usually, the quicker you respond to the Inspector, the sooner a decision will be made. What does the Inspector need to know? It is very important that you read the Inspector’s letter and try to answer any questions asked. You should also tell the Inspector if evidence is missing or if there is anything else you think is important. You can reply to the Inspector: using the reply form and pre-paid envelope he sends to you; or by telephone on 0800 096 1926 (between 9:00 and 16:30). Your call will be free. However, your call will not be free if you use a mobile phone, but we will be able to call you back. If English is not your first language, and you would like to reply by phone, we can do this using Language Line. See our Other Languages page in the Translation Services section for more information. Do you have a complaint about the IRS? If you are not satisfied with the service you receive from us, please contact our Customer Service Team:   By telephone on 0800 096 1928 (between 9:00 and 16:30) or fax on 0121 606 2184; or   Send an e-mail to: sfc@irs-review.org.uk   Or you can write to the Customer Service Team at this address: Independent Review Service 4th Floor, Centre City Podium 5 Hill Street Birmingham. B5 4UB Alternative Services Available   Deaf or hard of hearing customers who have a textphone can call us on 0800 096 1929 (between 9:00 and 16:30)   Visually impaired customers, who want a copy of our leaflets or decisions in Braille, on audiotape or large print can call us on 0800 096 1927 (between 9:00 and 16:30). Go to our Visually Impaired page for more information. If English is not your first language, and you have difficulty in understanding the information about your review, we can send you copies of the most important documents in your own language. See our Translation Services page for more information. The Inspector will Decide Whether the local decision was reached correctly and whether it was the right one in all the circumstances of your case. The Inspector will decide this by looking carefully at the facts of your case, how the Reviewing Officer made his decision, the reasons for that decision and what you are unhappy about. The Inspector will change the decision if it is wrong. The Inspector will tell you the reasons for his decision. Of the cases Inspectors received, 53.8% of grant decisions made by the Jobcentre Plus were changed and 58% of crisis loan decisions were changed. If the Inspector decides that a payment should be made on your application the Jobcentre Plus office will make the payment. Payments are not sent out by this office. How Long will it Take? Our service standards set out the details of how quickly you should receive the Inspectors decision on your application. We aim to clear all cases at the earliest opportunity. If you apply for an urgent need such as food or fuel, we aim to issue a decision within 24 hours of your application being received at this office. In 95% of cases for other needs we aim to issue a decision within 12 working days of your papers being received at this office. In the year April 06 to April 07 Inspectors dealt with 87.6% of urgent cases within 24 hours and 99.5% of other cases within 12 days. The urgent cases that missed the target did so because Jobcentre Plus had not gathered enough evidence to make a decision, so the Inspector had to make enquiries by post if the applicant could not be contacted by phone. If you are unhappy or have a query about the Inspectors decision or the service we have provided you can contact our customer service team.