Frozen Bank A/c no access to Benefits

Nanny_of_6

Can anyone advice me how to help my 39 week pregnant daughter. She paid a cheque into her a/c for her partners wages. The cheque bounced and because she was £20 overdrawn they have frozen her account. Her Child Benefit and Child Tax Credits get paid into her a/c weekly that is all she has to live on but, the bank have sent her 2 letters saying she is going to be charged as these benefits have not gone into her a/c. They are now refusing to pay her the money the Government says she is entitled to in case she has changed where the payments will go in the future. As if she could do this it would takes weeks to arrange for them to be paid elsewhere.
Can the Bank (Nat West) legally do this? Please help I have no money to help her and she only has 2 nappies left for her one year old.

premierfella

I'm confused.

If the account is overdrawn, benefits have not been credited to the account and the cheque bounced, what money is it that belongs to her which NatWest is withholding?

If the benefits have been received by NatWest but not paid into the account, have NatWest told her what they have done with them?

Paul_Herring

Try applying for a crisis loan?

KingElvis

Sorry I'd like to help but I can't see what you're getting at, where are the benfit payments?

I assume (maybe wrongly) that Natpest have "consumed" the benefits through charges etc?

Nanny_of_6

I have just spoken to my daughter again. She was NOT overdrawn and she does not owe the bank a penny. A cheque bounced that she paid in then the bank froze her account. That's it they are saying they have sent her child tax benefit and child allowance back and they are charging her for this. She is not on income support so cannot get a crisis loan. She wants me to go to the bank with her in 1 hour. I want to know if legally her bank can stop her getting her benefits?

Paul_Herring

they are saying they have sent her child tax benefit and child allowance back and they are charging her for this

Well if they've refused the benefits payments, then they don't have them to give to her.

You may have a case to request that they give a temporary (free) overdraft of the amount the benefits would be for to allow her to draw against that amount until the benefits are resubmitted, but I suspect you'll have to persuade the bank, first, that they were wrong to both
a) bounce the benefits to begin with
b) charge for the bounce.

Nanny_of_6

That makes sense and thank you very much. I will post how she gets on.

KingElvis

Good luck from me.

richard9991

if all else fails she can claim a crisis loan you dont have to be on any benefits to claim them.

chanz4

this doesnt add up, natwest wouldnt freeze an account just for a cheque that bounces been paid in, their is more to this.

Nanny_of_6

Thank you all so much for your input. I tried phoning so many people, those I did eventually get through to said I had to call them back next week!
The Bank Manager was as helpful as he was allowed to be, but he did try his best to help my daughter. There was a mistake and the account should not have been frozen - but it will not show as open until Monday as it is the next working day. My daughter will not incur any charges.
Unfortunately he could not give her even a small overdraft until Monday as the account still showed frozen.
All this we found out after 4pm today Friday so it was too late to get across town and start the process of a crisis loan. Luckily my bank manager was much more helpful and gave me a short overdraft, so in the end I was able to help her. £100 may not seem much but when you have nothing it means the world.
My daughter is now resting after a stressful day/week and just phoned me to say she has started her labour a week early, so by Monday my daughter should be able to get nappies for her new son.
As for the person who wrote the unpaid cheque, well he has disappeared, he has no idea the grief he caused. I hope I bump into him one day! Oh and my Bank Manager helped my daughter to open a new bank account hehe.