Mandatory Reconsideration Deadline

Mandatory Reconsideration deadlines come from the Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/381) and the equivalent earlier instruments for legacy benefits.

1. Hard deadline: 1 calendar month from the date printed on the decision letter — not the date you received or first read it. The calculator adds one calendar month to the decision date and clamps to the end of shorter months, so a decision dated 31 January gives a deadline of 28 (or 29) February, not a date in March.
2. Late request window: up to 13 months from the decision date, but only where you can show good reason for the delay — for example serious illness, never receiving the letter, mental-capacity issues, or an abusive or coercive situation. The calculator shows this 13-month point as the absolute long-stop: after it the DWP cannot accept a reconsideration request at all.
3. If the DWP refuses to accept a late request it must explain why, and that refusal can itself sometimes be challenged.

Reminders are set at 7, 3 and 1 day before the 1-month deadline, and the .ics download adds all the dates to any calendar app. The days-left figure counts whole days in UTC, so it does not drift by a day around British Summer Time.

What this tool does not cover: it is for DWP-administered benefits only. HMRC decisions (Tax Credits, Child Benefit) and Social Security Scotland decisions follow different review routes with their own time limits. It also does not deal with "any-time revision" for official error, which has no time limit, or with decisions that carry a right of appeal without Mandatory Reconsideration. It assumes the date you enter is the date printed on the letter — if you are unsure, use the earliest plausible date so you do not overstate your time.