Income Support and DLA and the bank charges waiver

[Carlp]

Hi

I'm new to the forum and am seeking some help regarding an issue with claiming bank charges while in receipt of income support and disability living allowance. I have calculated and submitted my request for reimbursement of charges applied to a now closed Abbey National account amounting to £3994.98 including interest to the date of the request. I also included as part of the letter, information regarding my current health and financial positions. I then received a letter from Abbey outlining their position in respect to the waiver in dealing with cases until the conclusion of the test case. My question is does this stay apply due to the fact that I am in receipt of both income support and disability living allowance following a stroke that I suffered as I seem to remember reading somewhere that there were exclusions to the waiver and being in receipt of state benefits was one of them. Is this in fact the case or is what Abbey are saying correct and will I have to wait for the outcome of the test case or is there some procedure that I can follow to push Abbey to deal with my case now?.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

This is a situation that has conflicting views.

I think I'm correct in saying that the Social Securities Act and penalty charges are only concerned in a Right of Appropriation, this is where you write to the bank and inform them that any money paid into your account are benefits and must be used for your bills only.

However, I myself wrote a letter of complaint to A&L, who put my account £500 into the red all with charges, and I threatened to take the matter further as it would only be JSA that would be paying these unlawful charges leaving me destitute.

I mentioned I was only living on the minimum the law allows one to live on and it was tax payers money.

Also, by them running up these charges and calling it an (unauthorised) overdraft, they had effectively lent money to me irresponsibily.

Within a week they wrote off the debt but closed my account.

Try that.