How we look at reviews

You can ask us for an independent review in writing or by phone.

We can send you a form in the post, or you can find it on our website at www.spso.org.uk/scottishwelfarefund

If you prefer, you can speak to us on 0800 014 7299 (calls to this number are free, even from mobiles).

We’ll need to know you have received the council’s first tier review decision. The council will usually send you a letter with its decision.

You should ask us for an independent review within one month of receiving the council’s first tier review decision. But in some circumstances you can ask for a review after this – contact us if you would like to discuss this.

You can get help from someone you trust.  You may like to ask your local Citizens Advice Bureau, an advocate or your support worker.  Your Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), councillor, Member of Parliament (MP), or a friend or relative may also be able to help.

If someone is asking for an independent review on your behalf, you will need to tell us you are happy for this to happen.

If you are helping someone to ask for an independent review, we’ll need their consent – unless there’s a good reason they can’t give it.

If you have consented to someone else applying on your behalf, we may share information with them.

We want to make sure you can access our services easily. Please let us know how we can help.

We’ll consider whether the council should have made a different decision. We have legal powers that allow us to do this. We can check a number of things, including whether the decision was fair and reasonable. We may look at whether the council:

• followed Scottish Government guidance, regulations and any relevant council policies
• considered information that was accurate, relevant and complete
• made appropriate enquiries to get the evidence it needed
• made its decision fairly, based on relevant evidence and your own individual circumstances
• treated you with dignity and respect in making its decision.

We’ll ask the council for all its paperwork about your application. We’ll want to see that the council has reviewed its decision. We’ll ask it to send us everything so we know what information was available and how it made its decision.

If we need information from anyone except the council, we’ll try to discuss this with you first.

Sometimes we’ll need to check information with you. We’ll usually do this by phone or in writing but we may also ask to meet you if necessary. We may sometimes need to have an oral hearing.  This will be with you and the council. You can ask us for more information about this.

Once we have all the information we need, we’ll make our decision.

We can decide to change part or all of the council’s decision, tell the council to make a new decision, or not change the council’s decision in any way.  We may also make suggestions to the council about how it can improve.

We won’t reduce or take away any award the council has given you.

If we decide that the council should give you an award, the council will contact you to arrange this.

After you have asked for an independent review, we’ll start work straight away. We’ll ask you and the council for the information we need. Getting this information can take time. This means we may need several days to give you our decision on a review of a Crisis Grant or a Self-Isolation Support Grant, and several weeks to give you our decision on a review of a Community Care Grant. We’ll aim to give you our decision within the following time limits:

• For Crisis Grants, one working day from when we get all the information we need to make a decision
• For Community Care Grants, 21 working days from when we get all the information we need to make a decision
• For Self-Isolation Support Grants, one working day from when we get all the information we need to make a decision.

If we cannot keep to these times, we’ll let you know why.

Making our decisions public

We may publish information about our reviews. This is to show people what we have found, and what we have asked councils to do. We’ll remove any information that could be used to identify you or anyone else. 

Reconsiderations

If you are unhappy with our decision, you can ask us to reconsider it. We’ll ask you to tell us why you disagree with it. We won’t reconsider our decision simply because you are disappointed with it.