Recovering DWP benefit paid into someone elses account

pix123_2

My daughters Disability payments were paid into another bank customers account,I gave the wrong account no by mistake and am having trouble recovering the money which is over £1500.Has anyone else managed to recover the money? Bank wrote to customer who has not replied, am now re writing to DWP to ask them to ask bank to pay back to them then on to me!!!
Has anyone else successfully recovered money like this?

Whiteknight

pix123 wrote: »

My daughters Disability payments were paid into another bank customers account,I gave the wrong account no by mistake and am having trouble recovering the money which is over £1500.Has anyone else managed to recover the money? Bank wrote to customer who has not replied, am now re writing to DWP to ask them to ask bank to pay back to them then on to me!!!
Has anyone else successfully recovered money like this?

Good luck with that, you gave the wrong details so DWP don't need to do anything to get the money back.

tonyciclo

Whiteknight wrote: »

Good luck with that, you gave the wrong details so DWP don't need to do anything to get the money back.

And unless the bank's other customer offers to hand back the £1500, the bank won't repay it either.

You are in the hands of the person that had the money paid into their bank account. If they refuse to hand it back then there is very little that can be done about it.

By giving the wrong account number you authorised the payment to go into that account.

That is why I don't like bank transfers - I prefer a giro. If it gets lost or someone else steals it, the DWP have to give you a duplicate. But getting the DWP to pay by giro is now almost impossible.

Poppie68

Surely thats theft...i would send a letter before action to the account holder. Only a scum bag would hold onto someone else's DLA, hand a letter into the bank and ask them to send it to the owner of the account.
Saying that though can the DWP not request the money back through the bank.

tonyciclo

Poppie68 wrote: »

Surely thats theft...i would send a letter before action to the account holder. Only a scum bag would hold onto someone else's DLA, hand a letter into the bank and ask them to send it to the owner of the account.
Saying that though can the DWP not request the money back through the bank.

How can it be theft? The poster authorised the money to go into that account - the account holder didn't ask for it.

Come on, in today's world I don't know many if any that would hand over £1500 when they don't have to. Besides which the poster has no idea who the person is that has the money. The bank will certainly not release their details to a 3rd party.

No the DWP are out of the loop - the poster told the DWP which account to pay it in to - it's not the DWP's fault.

StormyWeather_2

I'm sure it's theft if you keep something that isn't yours.

I agree with Poppie, what a scummy thing to do.

StormyWeather_2

tonyciclo wrote: »

Come on, in today's world I don't know many if any that would hand over £1500 when they don't have to. Besides which the poster has no idea who the person is that has the money. The bank will certainly not release their details to a 3rd party.

I wouldn't keep someone else's money. I could not do that.

Horseunderwater

Unfortunately it is not theft as the other bank account holder did not go out and steel the money - it arrived because the OP told DWP wrong account number and there will be nothing that can be done. This has happened to many many people and it has been highlighted on TV recently - not involving the DWP, but other people have done this with their own money and had the very same problem. DWP will not re send it either because as far as they are concerned it was paid to the account number that OP gave them.
Hopefully the OP has now corrected the account number to the correct one. This should be a lesson to everyone - WRITE DOWN the BANK ACCOUNT number in large well spaced out letters on a bit of paper when ringing them up or double check any forms and paperwork when completing a form. It is not hard to do. Just common sense.

tonyciclo

StormyWeather wrote: »

I wouldn't keep someone else's money. I could not do that.

Well then I am more honest than most. I would keep it! Most I would think will do the same.

No different to when HMRC pay WTC in that isn't due. Basically you can keep it and not repay it. I did when I found just under £1600 in my account one day. They will try to recover it but using the rules that they have you can get away with not giving it back.

StormyWeather_2

The name and sort code won't tally with the account number. The payments should have been queried.

StormyWeather_2

tonyciclo wrote: »

Well then I am more honest than most. I would keep it! Most I would think will do the same.

No different to when HMRC pay WTC in that isn't due. Basically you can keep it and not repay it. I did when I found just under £1600 in my account one day. They will try to recover it but using the rules that they have you can get away with not giving it back.

Keeping someone else's money would make you incredibly dishonest.

Of course it's different to an HMRC error.