Bank charges from benefit payments

heidichambers

Hi, I found info on a thread from 2006 saying that the S S admin act means that banks cannot take charges from your account if the only source of income is benefits i.e JSA/ Income Support etc. It said that this may not be up to date due to the time of posting- so I looked on the Gov site to check any amendments to the act- and couldn't find any that would mean banks can now lawfully take charges from (certain) benefits.


I work with vulnerable people on benefits as their income source, and have had lots of success getting bank charges back- could you confirm if this is still the case? I would like to share this with my colleagues but there is some confusion over whether the advice I am passing on is still valid? Please help!

JuicyJesus

Bank charges are an expense incurred by the account holder and as such can be legitimately paid out from benefits, in line with any other expenses. There is no law that says otherwise, and there does not have to be one saying it's allowed for it to be allowed. This link explains what the law you referred to actually means: http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/showthread.php?36225-Social-Security-Administration-Act-1992-Section-187&p=281999#post281999. (The proposed solution of redirecting benefits will assist in the short term but will most likely result in a spiral of charges if any debt and any charges accrued are not repaid.)

The bank is however required to be sympathetic and positive towards those in financial difficulty and provide reasonable assistance to those in hardship, which may (but does not have to) include refunding charges but will probably not (and does not have to) include refunding historic charges.