Thanks Ash, I have done and that would be useful in the future but not for this. I was thinking more along the lines of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 which apparently prohibits banks from using housing benefit payments to settle debts such as this? Thanks for your reply.

Hi everyone, In a nutshell, my local council paid £850 housing benefit into my bank account which was £800 overdrawn through a few Direct Debits. RBS used the payment to clear the unauthorised overdraft, then closed the account advised me to seek alternative banking. The closing of the account isn't the issue here, I could have ran it far better than I did so cannot really complain. Problem is, I'm now £750 in debt to my landlord after withdrawing the remaining £50 for him. Prior to this, I was receiving housing benefit payments by cheque because of the overdrawn account (I requested