JSA being eaten by bank

pretzelnut

Iam posting this on behalf of my brother.

He used to be in the army up until a short while ago when he was discharged on medical grounds, (he broke both his wrists on excercise and the army thought they were to fragile now for him to carry on serving)

Anyway he lost his job and also lost his accomodation with the army so was staying with a mate, he went overdrawn with the bank by £2.xx whilst waiting for his JSA to come through. And this has triggered a charge making him further overdrawn.

He got his JSA this morning but that has all gone on paying the charges plus another one as the bank say he's in unarranged borrowing so another charge.

It just seems to be a massive snowball.

Is there anything he can do to make sure he actually see's his JSA, were lending him what little we have spare as he obviously cant live on nothing.

catenorfolk

why doesnt he open another bank account and give those details to the benefits office to pay into???

applecharlotte

i know the feeling. my wages go into my bank and get eaten up by bank charges,bills, interest on my credit cards etc. it's so annoying. why can't i keep my wages and not pay my bills and charges. i would be so much better off!

dipsy

I think he should contact the bank and try to get them to see reason, you are saying he was £2 over drawn and then got bank charges? which is JSA went against?

if he has a previous good history with the bank they may be willing to see sense in all of this.

pretzelnut

I never thought about getting him to open another bank account, ill get him to do that today. Thanks.

Im not sugesting he doesnt pay his bills or debts, he has never been in debt apart from this once.
He has never had bills to pay as he was in the army and he paid for his food and accomadation direct from his wages, he has no DD as he has never had any to pay.

I just remember reading on here ages ago that there might be a letter that he can send to the bank to stop them taking all his JSA in charges.

zappster1966

Why not tell the Job Centre his account is closed ? They'll suggest he opens another bank account or a Post Office card account ... but they can pay him by giro meantime until it's all sorted.

atomicsheep

he could try claiming for a crisis loan if he has no money left due to the charges

ekkygirl

Ask the ask for the money back, You never know. I have managed to get the charges reversed for my clients just by asking

elainey_2

I would definitely open another bank account to get his money paid into! And as ekkygirl mentioned, may be worth asking the bank to refund the money, especially as the original amount was so small - nothing ventured...

Love Elaine xxx

vegankris

zappster1966 wrote:

they can pay him by giro meantime until it's all sorted

I think this would be your best bet. My OH used to get his JSA by cheque and cashed it at the post office.

shjo558

Bank aren't allowed to use your benefits to pay off an overdraft - have a search for "First Right of Appropriation".

It's also very well explained on this site http://www.kettering.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=1247

Might be worth a friendly chat with bank staff on Monday.

(I know the OP is talking about JSA but the same principle applies)