Universal Credit (and others) and Post Office accounts

maxmycardagain

The PO is closing all the accounts the DWP pay benefits to, many on benefits have very poor credit ratings, some have no passport/driving licence photo id to open accounts like Starling or others

what can a claimant do in these cases?

(some are not the electoral register either)

poppy12345

Other forms of ID are accepted if they don't have a passport or driving licence.. for EG, a Government letter is just one of them.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/blog/how-to-beat-id-issues-when-opening-a-bank-account

ohdrar

You could see about a paypoint card account instead, might be worth investigating further as a bank account is not possible for everyone. 

https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service

[Deleted User]

Basic bank accounts are available if a bank can not offer a standard account. 

You can also open a lot of accounts online and there are ways to check identity. 

For example I’ve just opened a second current account recently, all done online, and they have confirmed my identify because they haven’t requested to see ID documents and I have the card now, internet banking set up and have been using the account. 

As already mentioned too banks will accept other forms of ID. 

On the back of that a poor credit history won’t stop you getting a bank account. (A CIFAS marker May though). 

[Deleted User]

There is also an option in some cases to have the payment made via pay point.