Money by mistake in account

vanilla175

Hi. Never posted before so hope you can help. My daughter was paid £147 into her account by an employment agency she worked for 2 years previous. This was about 6 weeks ago and she did not realise until a letter from the bank arrived today. She didnt notice at the time because she was changing employment from temp to permanent and weekly to monthly salary that week so didnt know what wage to expect. To confuse things further she also received 2 wage slips with differing amounts from her current employer.
The bank says it is legally required to return the money and wants her to sign a consent form to take the money out, but whilst we realise a mistake was made, my daughter did not realise at the time and is on a very tight budget. It will cause her major problems to repay this all at once. Can the bank just take the money out as it was not a mistake made by the bank , but the employment agency?

anniecave

No matter who's mistake it is - the bank, the employment agency or someone else's - it was still a mistake. If your friend was trying to pay you and accidentally paid the money to someone else, would you want the person who received it to give it back so you could have it? Yes you would.

I would suggest she should agree to the money being returned, and ask her new employer for an advance if she is having trouble bridging the gap between weekly pay and monthly pay.

ihateyes

vanilla175 wrote: »

Can the bank just take the money out as it was not a mistake made by the bank , but the employment agency?

No the bank cant... thats why they sent you a consent form...

You can refuse...... but as the above posters said what if your daughter sent you a £k but it came to me...... im sure you would love to to hand it back......

McKneff

She can refuse but of course they would pursue her for it.

Youre her mum, be a good role model and tell her what you would do under the circumstances

virgin_moneysaver

if she hadnt worked for the agency for 2 years, surely the name on the credit for £147 would have rung alarm bells, as she was only changing contracts with her current firm, the name on their credits would have remained the same

thegirlintheattic

Hang on OP. Was the money from the previous employment a mistake? Have you contacted them? Is it possible it is holiday pay or the like?

If a mistake then she will have to pay it back, sooner the better, BUT the bank needs her permission to do this. You could delay a few days or a week to give her time to get more money in perhaps by borrowing from family/friends? Just hand the form in slightly later. Beware though, the longer you leave it the more agro you could get from the company.

I understand how easy it is to miss these things, I got paid a year after I left an employment (only a small amount), and it took 6 months for me to realise!

pqrdef

This case seems different from the type of case where somebody randomly mistypes an account number. The agency made the payment to your daughter because they had her bank details on file (which maybe they should have deleted before now). In a sense the payment was intentional, notwithstanding there was some sort of mistake in the process which led to it.

A BACS direct credit normally has a "name of payee", as well as a sort code and account number, though nobody looks at it until there's a query. Your daughter should ask the bank what name the payment was intended for. If it's her name, then this has nothing to do with the bank and it's for the agency to chase her for the money.

We can't have banks reversing valid payment instructions just because the payer changes his mind.

Likewise if the taxman sends me a rebate he doesn't actually owe me. He'll have to ask me to return the money, he can't just ask the bank to lift it out of my account.

antrobus

pqrdef wrote: »

This case seems different from the type of case where somebody randomly mistypes an account number. The agency made the payment to your daughter because they had her bank details on file (which maybe they should have deleted before now). In a sense the payment was intentional, notwithstanding there was some sort of mistake in the process which led to it.

A BACS direct credit normally has a "name of payee", as well as a sort code and account number, though nobody looks at it until there's a query. Your daughter should ask the bank what name the payment was intended for. If it's her name, then this has nothing to do with the bank and it's for the agency to chase her for the money.

We can't have banks reversing valid payment instructions just because the payer changes his mind.

Likewise if the taxman sends me a rebate he doesn't actually owe me. He'll have to ask me to return the money, he can't just ask the bank to lift it out of my account.

I'd say that was about right. If the bank told the OP that they were "legally required to return the money" then the bank would be telling porky pies, as evidenced by the fact that they wouldn't need the daughter to "sign a consent form" if that was the case.

Assuming that this is a case of money paid in error then yes, of course, the daughter is legally obliged to repay it. Either by consenting to the bank debiting the amount, or indeed some other method, such as sending the agency a cheque.

On the other hand it might be prudent for the daughter to carry out her own investigations. Such as confirming with the bank the details suggested above, or indeed contacting the agency concerned and getting them to confirm that it's not her money, how did this happen etc etc. That kind of thing could take some weeks, thereby providing (by lucky accident) sufficient time for the daughter to get her finances in order.

Lawpf2001

As the others have said she should return.

I think if the payment was made by mistake but with her name as recipient or reference then the bank need permission from the account holder to withdraw the money. But if payment has someone elses name on it, they can withdraw without consent.

jamesd

I suggest that she tries this approach:

"Unfortunately for them I was changing jobs at the time, didn't realise that this was accidentally paid into my account and have spent it as part of my normal spending. Returning the whole sum at present would cause me financial difficulty. I've been informed that this is a situation where return of the money isn't strictly necessary, based on precedents from both the courts and the Financial Ombudsman Service.

However, I do agree that I should return the money.

I hereby offer to pay them by standing order on the xth of the month the sum of £24.50 a month for six months to fully repay the sum at a rate that will not cause me undue hardship. If they accept the offer please take this as my authorisaton to set up such a standing order, or use an alternative internal mechanism of your choice if preferred."

Adjust the day to be a little after pay day and an amount and duration that she can afford.

ihateyes

vanilla175 wrote: »

employment agency she worked for 2 years previous.

On another note.... Under Data protection a company should only hold your personal details for a reasonable period of time.......
I would question why after 2years of leaving they have not destroyed your bank details and permanently removed them from files/systems.....

If you getting lots of a hassle from them, a letter to the Information Commissioner outling your concerns...:beer: