1 week of money & 3 weeks of none due to od

helsbels1982

hi

i was just wanting a bit of advice if possible.

i am currently on benefits..

i have an overdraft which i was given wen at uni bout 5 yrs ago which i ended up going into the overdraft and have never gotten out of it since.. unfortunatly when i went onto benefits i ended up going over my od because i had no money due to waiting for the benefits to be set up and bills were still going out (i know now i should have cancelled them). unfortunatly ever since then (which was near 2 years ago now) i dont seem to be able to stay in my od. i know it is my fault in the start. but now i am finding that i never seem to be in the od always over it. therefore when ever i get my benefits it is just clearing up the amount that is over the od and then when bills come out it puts me back over it again. i am being charged between 118 - 168 pounds every month in charges and that then puts me over it again and so my next benefit payments is clearing that and it just seems to be a viscous circle.
i dont know how to sort it out and i am getting so down and depressed about it because it is leaving me no money to live on at all because i cant get any of the money out of my bank because it has been owed. (i hope this makes sense). i am making myself realy ill because of it!
what can i do?? i have gotten rid of things that are not essential i.e bills etc but i still never seem to be able to stay out of it. as an example - my rent goes out tomorrow and i have half the money available so that will put me over the od till i get my benefits next week but because i am going to be over it and because i am going to be charged aswell by the bank i am only goin to break even so ill have nothing to live on and till i get paid again in 2 weeks but again it will happen again.

any advise or suggestiond would be great

helsbels

foxxymynx

There is some law that states that they can't take certain benefits for bank charges. Another thing is that if you write to your bank telling them what money is going in of benefits and what you have to spend on x, y and z which are priorities (rent, food etc) they have to not take that money. I'm not making much sense and apologise for that but I'm sure someone will be able to help you more.

pat22

ive only beeen on this forum a few days they are wonderfull the same thing happened to my daughter and i posted on here same as you reply i got was basicly they cant do that and they cant went into our bank quoted they cant take benifit we had all monies put back same day and set up apayment plan allowing them to take 40 a month job done be brave confront them my daughter owed a lot on credit cards and was really worried about confronting them but it was so easy good luck let us know how you get on

krisskross

foxxymynx wrote: »

There is some law that states that they can't take certain benefits for bank charges. Another thing is that if you write to your bank telling them what money is going in of benefits and what you have to spend on x, y and z which are priorities (rent, food etc) they have to not take that money. I'm not making much sense and apologise for that but I'm sure someone will be able to help you more.

The bank can take any money coming into the account from ANY source including benefits to pay bank charges.

That they can't is an urban myth perpetuated on here and is quoted at least once a day.

Open a post office account for the benefits to go into. Have no direct debits, come to an arrangement with the original bank about repayment. Start reclaiming the charges on hardship grounds using the template letters available on this site.

oldmotherreilly

What you need to do is to write a letter to your bank and tell them that you wish to instigate your first right of appropriation. You then need to detail exactly how much you need to live on each week ie how much for rent, how much for utility bills, how much for clothes, how much for food-this should roughly equate to the amount of benefit you receive. The bank then CANNOT touch your benefit money to pay for anything else. I would also ask for written confirmation from the bank that they have received and actioned the letter. This is not an urban myth, as I was given this information on a debt management course by the CAB and know several people who have instigated this right. Make sure you use the exact phrase though as the letter must apparently contain them. Someone has already given a template letter on a different part of the forum-this is the link
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=5925091
Hope this helps!