DLA & carers allowance about to be swallowed by overdraft.

persil

Hello, would be grateful for any advice.

We receive DLA and carers allowance BUT today an order we placed online—and subsequently cancelled—has actually been debited from our card and has left us overdrawn.
The refund is on its way but this means that wednesday's and friday's payments will be both be swallowed by the overdraft.
In the longterm not an issue as we get the money back anyway but a huge issue this week as we have no other income apart from those two payments-literally no money if we can't access those funds.
I am panicking slightly but was wondering if there is anything we can do?

Thank you

joe_purdy

do you have any emergency funds saved for if anything like this was to ever arise?

jetta_wales

If the overdraft can be used for the payment of the item then why can it not be used to access the DLA funds till the refund comes in? That's what overdrafts are for, emergencies and if the payment came out then both Carers and DLA go in then the overdraft can't be near it's limit at that point.

Mrs_Ryan

Ah - I get you. Unauthorised overdrawn by any chance? This happened with OH. The bank took his DLA to service their charges and in a busy branch on a Friday afternoon I said loud enough for everyone to hear that they have taken a payment meant for his disability needs and would they please return it. Which to their credit, they did. They arranged a temporary overdraft to ensure access to the full amount - maybe they can do similar for you?

persil

Mrs_Ryan: thank you. Yes, it was over our overdraft limit but the bank have been great I have to say (coop). As they could see the payment had been debited twice from the account they're happy to wait for the refund to credit and give us access to the benefits.

Our "emergency funds" wouldn't cover the overdraft but all sorted now!

Mrs_Ryan

Ah brilliant. I'm glad you got it sorted - glad I could help.

MuscleDiseaseWontStopMe

I'd suggest for future purchases you should really check your bank account first to see if you have enough funds to cover the purchase. That way you won't have to go into your overdraft

jetta_wales

MuscleDiseaseWontStopMe wrote: »

I'd suggest for future purchases you should really check your bank account first to see if you have enough funds to cover the purchase. That way you won't have to go into your overdraft

I'd suggest for the future you read all the posts properly before replying. That way you'd see that their last post stated that the amount for the purchase had been debited twice

MuscleDiseaseWontStopMe

jetta_wales wrote: »

I'd suggest for the future you read all the posts properly before replying. That way you'd see that their last post stated that the amount for the purchase had been debited twice

yeah i didn't see that