Bank taking your Benefit? Quote this -

ben-e-fitt · 22 September 2006 at 11:10PM

Official MoneySavingExpert.com Insert:

Please note this thread was originally started in 2006 and may no longer apply.

Social Security Administration Act 1992
Miscellaneous
Certain benefit to be inalienable **

187- Subject to the provisions of this Act, every assignment of, or charge on-
(a)benefit as defined in section 122 of the Contributions and Benefits Act;
(b)any income-related benefit; or
(c)child benefit,
and every agreement to assign or charge such benefit shall be void; and, on the bancrupcy of the beneficiary, such benefit shall not pass to any trustee or other person acting on behalf of his creditors.

** inaliable = not to be forfeited.

Basically they can't take you benefit money for overdrafts or debts, and if they have you can ask for it back !

DjSatansfury · 23 September 2006 at 1:08AM

Intresting...Seeing as i've just been forced by Halifax to make a payment for my overdraft. They really wernt helpful at all

ben-e-fitt · 23 September 2006 at 1:46AM

This information was sourced by someone at the DWP due to customers concerns following the cessation of order books and the move to Direct Payment. I beleive it to be accurate although i haven't actually looked at the act in it's entirety.

Glad you found it useful, and i hope it gets you something back.

Kinnairdy · 23 September 2006 at 8:43AM

:-D Ben-e-fit, any details or a link on how to access the 'Blue Book' online, that 'Tome' contains very useful & helpful information on benefit legislation for claimants but is not openly publicised as being available to the public. Had access to it once upon a time in the early 90s but no longer working in that area myself. :-)

msmicawber · 23 September 2006 at 9:23AM

Hi ben-e-fitt,

Presumably, by the Act's name that only refers to IS, JSA, etc. administered by central Government, and not Housing and Council Tax Benefits administered by local authorities. Is there anything similar referring to those benefits, do you know?

paul&nat · 23 September 2006 at 9:31AM

thanks alot for this post they are doing it all the time around the 18th of each month taking my child benefit money out leaving me with nothing!!

peter999 · 23 September 2006 at 10:16AM

ben-e-fitt wrote:

Social Security Administration Act 1992
Miscellaneous
Certain benefit to be inalienable **

** inaliable = not to be forfeited.
Basically they can't take you benefit money for overdrafts or debts, and if they have you can ask for it back !

That's great, but do banks & benefit staff know & are they interested ??
Will it stop banks taking this inalienable money, I don't think so.

If you kick up a fuss with banks, they are likely to close your account,
like people who have recovered high bank charges.

The reality is, the benefits agency & banks are not interested.

Direct payment was introduced to save money & combat fraud,
but other consequences/problems caused to claimants are ignored.

Is it the banks problem -NO.
Do you want banks knowing/checking/considering you are on benefit -NO.

peter999

ben-e-fitt · 23 September 2006 at 10:45AM

an extremely elusive "tome" as you say. a good starting point would have to be: http://www.opsi.gov.uk and take it from there. Thousands of pages which, as you say, could help many, but i'd get lost in there.
With regards to banks knowing if you receive benefit, if your money is paid into a bank. course they know ! look at your statement- your national insurance number usually followed by DWP then the benefit identifier such as IB (incap) IS (income support), then theres DLA, RP, PC CB and a host of others.
Thanks to all comments.

Turning_into_scrooge · 23 September 2006 at 11:52AM

ben-e-fitt wrote:

Social Security Administration Act 1992
Miscellaneous
Certain benefit to be inalienable **

187- Subject to the provisions of this Act, every assignment of, or charge on-
(a)benefit as defined in section 122 of the Contributions and Benefits Act;
(b)any income-related benefit; or
(c)child benefit,
and every agreement to assign or charge such benefit shall be void; and, on the bancrupcy of the beneficiary, such benefit shall not pass to any trustee or other person acting on behalf of his creditors.

** inaliable = not to be forfeited.
Basically they can't take you benefit money for overdrafts or debts, and if they have you can ask for it back !

I have said this many times on this board and other posters have said i am wrong. Thank you for posting this :beer:

peter999 · 23 September 2006 at 12:01PM

ben-e-fitt wrote:

With regards to banks knowing if you receive benefit, if your money is paid into a bank. course they know ! look at your statement- your national insurance number usually followed by DWP then the benefit identifier such as IB (incap) IS (income support), then theres DLA, RP, PC CB and a host of others.

Day to day nobody is checking your bank statement unless there's a problem.

You seriously think your bank is that interested in you ??

Do you want a bank systematically checking bank statements,
seeing your on benefits & making a decison/assessment on you ??

Also a bank cannot make a decison on this information,
as you haven't told them this, so they don't know it's correct

-it's just transaction system information, not information you have told them.

peter999

ben-e-fitt · 23 September 2006 at 12:40PM

I fully understand your comments peter999.
On a day to day basis they are not likely to look at individual accounts. However, they have access to everyones account and if you owe them something they are going to look at ways of recouping that money. The DWP has access to loads of information about it's customers, and the banks i think would have access to a lot regarding each of their customers. They have to monitor and report transactions if needed, to prevent fraud,money laundering an such. I may be wrong but i would consider it likely that they could run a "trawl" at any time to establish where credits appear from.
I accept they may not scour each customers account daily, but they would certainly look at an account if it was in default. If they didn't how could they operate? Perhaps an experienced Banker could tell us how it works.

Bank taking your Benefit? Quote this -

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