What can we do if we are on benefits (merged)

anday111

I appreciate that Mike Dailly has a career to build upon but I have got to question his advice. A parliamentry committee was advised by him as follows: Mr Dailly: "I do honestly believe that the banks in the UK are much more dangerous than illegal money lenders."

To me that sounds as though he is suggesting we borrow from illegal money lenders instead of from licenced banks. I am not a lawyer or a financial advisor but I know where I will be going for my next loan or mortgage and it will not be to the man wielding the baseball and the hammer drill. They charge an arm and a leg if you miss a payment and are not regulated by any of the consumer credit acts.

Tozer

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Its a myth about that bank charges and benefits cannot be taken.
Woods v. RBS was about "arrestment", a definition appears in this article from Scottish Debtline. http://www.scottishdebtline.co.uk/faqs/legal.htm
Bank charges is not the issue in Woods v RBS with regards to current bank charges claims and therefore expect a negative response or a wait and see or a are you in hardship response.

Absolutely correct. The Act talks about charges in the context of encumbering or mortgaging the benefits - it is legal terminology and does NOT prevent a bank from applying charges to money once it is in the account. This has been pointed our loads of time.

What the Act does prevent is anyone assigning (selling) or charging (mortgaging) the benefits before they get to the account. so it would prevent someone saying - if you sell me the rights to your benefits, I will pay you £500 now.

The policy behind the legislation is really clear and it is really unfortunate how people are taking it out of context.

krisskross

This issue appears at least once a week here on MSE. No matter how many times it is pointed out that it is not true there is always someone to ressurect it. I think it should be a 'sticky' in capital letters.

tenbears

ive been banking with the halifax,i called them up to question them about taking money from my account which is already over drawn for bank charges, im on jobseekers at the min. i asked about the social security administration act 1992 nd was told that it didnt matter id sighned an agreement with the bank when id joined is it legal for them to do that :mad: could somebody please help

Tozer

The bank is right. The SSA Act 1992 is a complete red herring. There are loads of posts on this subject if you do a search.

Rdh_2

Halifax has a new habbit to get extra charges from people on benefits.
If you check your statment/daysheet on line after midnight, say around 00:34 you can make a note of the days transaction, as by law it is the next day.
Then check it again, at around 9am in the morning, you will/may find transaction/s have been added but not with todays date but yesterdays date on it.
So if you are running close to the limit, it will trip a charge, its called blind banking.
I took photos of the day sheet, and sent it to Ombudsman.
Halifax returned all the charge back, but told to keep quite about it.

If you do not belive me check it out?

tenbears

thanks for the information folks this all new to me so much appreciated

natweststaffmember

Rdh wrote: »

Halifax has a new habbit to get extra charges from people on benefits.
If you check your statment/daysheet on line after midnight, say around 00:34 you can make a note of the days transaction, as by law it is the next day.
Then check it again, at around 9am in the morning, you will/may find transaction/s have been added but not with todays date but yesterdays date on it.
So if you are running close to the limit, it will trip a charge, its called blind banking.
I took photos of the day sheet, and sent it to Ombudsman.
Halifax returned all the charge back, but told to keep quite about it.

If you do not belive me check it out?

If that works now I would not only be shocked but very surprised since the OFT test case began. Can I ask when you went to the FOS?

Supa_z

I have been sifting through my bank statements, and have found that my bank have charged me over a thousand pounds in the past few months, but its been my benefit money, i dont know the law on this, is it legal for them to take what we need to survive on? please help as once again this week they have left me with about 15 pounds

Ex-Spendaholic

Sorry can't help you on the legal stuff but I'm sure I read somewhere on the site about banks not being able to take benefit money. Hopefully someone will point that out.

In the meantime it would be well worthwhile getting your benefits paid in somewhere else and this will at least give you a credit balance and help reduce the vicious circle.

As for the reclaiming take a look at Martin's guide here to see if you may fit the financial hardship criteria:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/oft-bank-charges#hardship