Natwest acc closure

c0c0nuts

savagej wrote: »

No, the bank cannot take your JSA, it will have to give it back to you. The law dictates both in England and in Scotland that such benefits cannot be used to pay bank charges and their is plently of case law on the subject.

Some people are giving you duff information, which country are you in?

Edit: it does not matter if you have children or not.

I work for a very well known High Street bank and have worked for another equally well known bank several years ago, both institutions practice what I have said and certainly wouldn't be doing so if they weren't allowed. And yes- the children rule DOES apply.

savagej

I have read on the Govan Law Centre website the complete oppposite of what you state, however, I conceed you could be right. I know the GLC statement on the law is only applicable in Scotland, which I am guessing you are not. It was appealed by the bank to a higher court and they lost the appeal and still had to pay back the money.

jonesMUFCforever

For any bank a credit into an account is just that a credit - it matters not from where it comes from. If you are overdrawn then they will apply repayment of that overdraft through any credit received.
I know of one very large high street bank where you can ask for ''prioritisation'' of a credit and they will allow this once and once only in a severe emergency - you ask again and the account will be closed.

Extant

c0c0nuts wrote: »

I work for a very well known High Street bank and have worked for another equally well known bank several years ago, both institutions practice what I have said and certainly wouldn't be doing so if they weren't allowed. And yes- the children rule DOES apply.

A recipient of benefits is free to spend their benefits as they please. If they choose to enter in to a payment plan with a bank, using their benefits to finance said plan, that's their choice and absolutely fine.

What is not fine, however - and not fine by word of the FOS, too - is for the bank to claim said benefits or set-off any debt against the benefits.

That said, no bank is required to offer you banking facilities, and you're not expressly entitled to them. If you're in debt and won't set up a plan with the bank, they're within their rights to close or suspend the banker-customer relationship.

The reality of this is that a receipt entry of benefits might become "caught up," i.e. claimed by the bank and not given back in the process of closing and sending your debt to recovery. If that were the case, you'd be reliant on the bank's customer relations to give you those funds back. This would, of course, vary from bank to bank and whether they've had a case go to FOS for a similar thing. Speaking from experience, however, it's faster to cut the cheque and write that back to your recoveries department than to allow it to escalate etc.