Random money appeared in bank account

indie1982

Trying to help a friend, she's got in touch with me saying some money has appeared in her bank account, she's not expecting anything to be paid in.

The transaction reference that appears is: NORTH EAST 317 , FP 17/11/10 1525

Had a quick search online for "North East 317" and there's a thread on here: www. saxperience. com/forum/showthread.php?t=317997

Some other people have had money paid in to the account with the same reference but they don't know where it's from. The bank isn't very helpful and just says that it's from "North East 317".

Does anyone have any idea how we can track it down? The bank don't want to help and she doesn't want to spend money that might not be hers.

I was thinking that North East 317 might be a reference to a tax office or something like that, but can't seem to see if they each have a number associated with them or anything. Don't think she's even received anything from HMRC saying she'd be getting a tax refund and don't they come as a cheque anyway?

dzug1

Someone on the thread you linked was sure it was job seekers allowance. Would that ring true?

Techhead_2

The DWP do sometimes makes random payments (I think its when they review payments to make sure nothing has been missed).
When it happened to me the reference had DWP and JSA in the reference.

uolypool

My ESA usually shows up on my bank statment as my national insurance number and amount but I occasionally get one that says East of England and the amount

Mikeyorks

indie1982 wrote: »

but can't seem to see if they each have a number associated with them or anything.

They do each have a 3 digit Numeral associated. But it's not from HMRC if it's noted 'FP'. Their public facing accounts ... both inward and outward still don't support Faster Payment. And their PAYE system ..... can still only issue repayment via cheques.

DWP .... I'm less certain of .... but fairly convinced they use BACS Direct Credit ..... which doesn't show as 'FP'

indie1982

Thanks everyone, she's just started to receive ESA so it could be that, the bank have now said they will investigate and call her back.

There's another reference number after the "FP 17/11/10 1525" part that I didn't want to post here in case it was personal information, it doesn't seem to include any part of her NI number but it is 16 numbers followed by 2 letters.

If we get to the bottom of it I'll report back!

indie1982

Just to let you know, the bank were useless and didn't call her back. She called them again today and got told under no circumstances could they find out where the payment came from. Pretty hard to believe.

She called the ESA people who confirmed it WAS a payment from them, but there's no mention of NI number in the transaction reference which is helpful!

Thanks again!