Will OR take money from child's savings account

fabforty

I have tried to find the answer for this but I'm struggling.....

Parent opened an Leap account with Skipton Building Society, for her child when he was 2 years old. He is now 7. It is a standard savings account with deposits made at irregular intervals over the past 4 years - money from her herself, plus family and friends. The balance is now £5100 and is in her child's name but she is the named person on the account and can make withdrawals if she wants to. She has made one withdrawal since the account opened (that was in 2014).
She is considering bankruptcy, if an impending court action goes against her. She doesn't have a date for the hearing, but it should be within the next 3 months. (Probably not relevant, but at to avoid drip feeding information, she was overpaid by her employer for 18 years - approximately £80 per month, which they are trying to reclaim. With court fees and interest, they want over £20k- she has no hope of repaying it). Her worry is that the official receiver will take the money in her child's account. Does anyone know if it will be treated as her money, because she has access to it? Would withdrawing it now and closing the account be a bad idea (guessing the answer is 'yes')?


Any advice would be much appreciated.

Keep_pedalling

If she is no longer working for this company, they are going to have difficulty claiming this money back unless her contract of employment contains a clause that would make any overpayment a civil dept, and even then they can not go back further than 6 years from the discovery of overpayment.

As they made the error, they are not entitle to interest either. It sounds like they are trying to frighten her with threats of legal action. If she is a member of a union they will be able to provide legal advice, as will her home insurance company if she took out the legal cover option. If she does not have any form of legal cover then she should talk to CAB.

https://www.crunch.co.uk/knowledge/employment/ive-been-overpaid-what-should-i-do/

As for the child!!!8217;s savings she should move £4260 of that into a JISA which will lock that money away from everyone (including herself) until the child is 18. The rest can go in after 6th April 2019.

fabforty

Thank you. She worked for the Civil Service (a large Government Dept), but left 2016- contract says regardless of how it happened, it's incumbent on them to recoup the money! She has already received notification from the County Court. She filed a defence, and another form (cant remember what it's called) which basically said case is suitable for Fast Tracking, so now just waiting for a hearing date. It is possible that the court will hold it is unfair for her to have to repay this money - especially as she is now a student and single parent. She has no spare income and no other savings, so ironically if she goes bankrupt they won't get a penny anyway. Thanks for your reply, will pass it on.

Samsung_Note2

Can she not agree to repay £80 a month for 18 years...exactly as they did to her.

antonic

The quote above yours states that she has no spare income , so she cannot repay at £80/mth.
If she was a current civil servant she would be facing disciplinary action as its her responsibility to make sure she gets paid the right amount .
(I know this as I am a civil servant).
Now as she is no longer employed by the civil service they have no other enforcement options open to them, hence taking court action against her.
As for the childs savings account, the answer is no they cant take it , because the account was opened in the name of the child and only an adult can open an account.

sourcrates

Just hold the phone here for one minute..........


All this talk of bankruptcy is a bit premature, even if the case were to go against her, and she was lumbered with the debt, the court makes these judgements based on the ability of the debtor to pay, any judgement amount would be based on a copy of her budget which should already of been sent to the claimant with her pre-action letter response.


Even if wires got crossed, and the judgment amount was not affordable, or they wanted the whole amount back in a lump sum, she could still apply to the court for an installments order that was affordable, so if all she can afford is £1 a week, then so be it.


Bankruptcy would be an option, but there are other ways to use the system to your advantage first.