on benefits can bank take money of you

ingrid1

not sure but I vaguely remember that banks cannot take money from your benefit if say overdrawn ( dd's come out monthly but benfits paid 4 weekly so dates change when money go in so sometimes dd comes out before money has gone in ) but I am sure there was a ruling that banks could not take money directly from benefits can from any other source of income but not you benfit income please help me on this one as this has happnened to my daughter and she is single parent 1 child and has now twice had money taken out for overdraft charge for being 1 day late she rang bank and they said can you get your benefit date changed unreal or what help please

4743hudsonj

http://bankruptcy.org.uk/4098/ask-a-question/can-the-bank-take-my-benefits-for-their-charges/

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?36790

http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/answers/benefits/overdraft.shtml

All found through a google.

Optimist

I haven't looked at the above links posted by 4743hudson but I'm betting they mention the Social Security Administration Act 1992 and parts of Tax Credits Act 2002 which are somewhat ambiguous in that they seem to imply that banks can not take benefits for payment of charges.

This is incorrect they can and in my opinion if you were to take them to court under the above acts you would lose. The relevant parts of the acts are designed to ensure benefit money cannot be assigned to a third party to settle a debt

Bank charges are expenses incurred and as such it is legal for the bank to take the money from the account no matter where the money came from.

Your daughter needs to renegotiate with the companies drawing on the direct debits and ask them to change the dates to come into line with the benefit payment days.

In the short term you can try a letter of appropriation but that is very short term and even then might not work.

chocdonuty

I have got charges refunded before, entirely my fault as I have my tv license dd go out quarterly, I totally forgot! and because of that dd failing another one due on the same day so I had 2 charges.
I'm with nationwide and it took a few phone calls, a long and detailed form to fill in, a months wait, but they refunded me in the end.
It's because the banks cannot cause hardship to benefit claimants (or something like that) but you do have to prove it and explain why if you did get charged it would cause hardship.
Best thing to do is ring up the bank and ask firstly if they can be refunded and what the process is, sometimes they refund your first charge as goodwill.
Second of all, budget! know exactly whats coming in/going out and when, it's hard but not impossible

4743hudsonj

Optimist wrote: »

I haven't looked at the above links posted by 4743hudson but I'm betting they mention the Social Security Administration Act 1992 and parts of Tax Credits Act 2002 which are somewhat ambiguous in that they seem to imply that banks can not take benefits for payment of charges.

This is incorrect they can and in my opinion if you were to take them to court under the above acts you would lose. The relevant parts of the acts are designed to ensure benefit money cannot be assigned to a third party to settle a debt

Bank charges are expenses incurred and as such it is legal for the bank to take the money from the account no matter where the money came from.

Your daughter needs to renegotiate with the companies drawing on the direct debits and ask them to change the dates to come into line with the benefit payment days.

In the short term you can try a letter of appropriation but that is very short term and even then might not work.

Thanks, i actually have no idea about this so it was literally me pulling a few results off of google.

I actually thought they could but the links led me to believe not.

catieeb06

Bank charges are are classed as expenses and therefore your liable to payment. Obviously there are hardship cases but the basic stance from banks will be that they're expenses.

Ta!

snugglepet20

When I was a student I used to have cards to pay bills on (gas, electric, water). It wasn't a pre-payment thing, you just put money on at the shop and that came off your bill. Maybe your daughter should ask for these. I know by getting bills you lose the direct debit discount but if she gets bank charges they will be more than what she is saving IYSWIM. Perhaps it is a better way to budget if money is really tight.
I would try and get the money back off the bank, the best way is to go in and speak to someone in an office, it's much harder for them to refuse face to face!

Ste_C

ingrid1 wrote: »

not sure but I vaguely remember that banks cannot take money from your benefit if say overdrawn ( dd's come out monthly but benfits paid 4 weekly so dates change when money go in so sometimes dd comes out before money has gone in ) but I am sure there was a ruling that banks could not take money directly from benefits can from any other source of income but not you benfit income please help me on this one as this has happnened to my daughter and she is single parent 1 child and has now twice had money taken out for overdraft charge for being 1 day late she rang bank and they said can you get your benefit date changed unreal or what help please

If your job application letters are anything like this then it's no wonder you're living on benefits.

See those little dots on the bottom line of your keyboard to the right of the space bar?

, .

Commas and fullstops. Give them a try sometime. Maybe even treat yourself with a question mark every now and then?