Recovering DWP benefit paid into someone elses account

Poppie68

Keeping any money wrongly credited to your account, could lead to you being charged with ‘Retaining wrongful credit’. The 1968 Theft act defines this as: "A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it".

StormyWeather_2

I'd go to the police to get the official stance and log a formal complaint.

Poppie, do you know if it would have DLA on the transaction reference? JSA has JSA plus an NI number, so it would be obvious if I received someone else's payment.

antrobus

tonyciclo wrote: »

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

Because;

Poppie68 wrote: »

Keeping any money wrongly credited to your account, could lead to you being charged with ‘Retaining wrongful credit’. The 1968 Theft act defines this as: "A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it"....

which is what it says on http://www.money.co.uk/article/1005023-can-you-keep-money-accidentally-paid-into-your-bank-account.htm

People have been prosecuted and convicted of the offence. For example; Sarah Jane Lee who discovered that a mistake by the Abbey bank had caused her bank balance to rocket to £135,000.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6966683.stm

jacques_chirac

tonyciclo wrote: »

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

Edited for you - but then news of your twisted values is nothing new, is it?

StormyWeather wrote: »

I'd go to the police to get the official stance and log a formal complaint.

Poppie, do you know if it would have DLA on the transaction reference? JSA has JSA plus an NI number, so it would be obvious if I received someone else's payment.

DLA payments do state DWP and DLA in the reference. I guess some people would not know what they refer to, but that doesn't change the fact that keeping money that does not belong to you is morally and legally wrong.

A letter before action would not do much good as any (civil) legal action would need to be addressed to the respondent, not c/o the bank. I'm not sure how much the police would do, but it should certainly be reported.

mikey_bach

OP ring DLA back and see if the payment has bounced back, if the numbers given for the bank account actually don't relate to any actual account it may well do.
It can take up to two weeks before showing as returned on the system so worth a phone call back to DLA

bengal-stripe

StormyWeather wrote: »

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

The name is not taken into account; it is just account number and sort code.

That combination must exist with someone else's current account, otherwise the payment would have gone into a suspense account and subsequently been returned to the DWP (although that takes a bit of time).

Poppie68

StormyWeather wrote: »

I'd go to the police to get the official stance and log a formal complaint.

Poppie, do you know if it would have DLA on the transaction reference? JSA has JSA plus an NI number, so it would be obvious if I received someone else's payment.

Yes it has DWP and DLA...

Poppie68

mikey_bach wrote: »

OP ring DLA back and see if the payment has bounced back, if the numbers given for the bank account actually don't relate to any actual account it may well do.
It can take up to two weeks before showing as returned on the system so worth a phone call back to DLA

The account number was a valid account, the bank have written to the account holder but they have'nt replied.

dealer_wins

This is a classic case of attempted fraud, and the benefits office are not stupid!!

tonyciclo

dealer_wins wrote: »

This is a classic case of attempted fraud, and the benefits office are not stupid!!

Sorry but that makes no sense - please elaborate.