JSA Paid to wrong account

[DH84]

Hi,

 

Having yet more travails getting my JSA claim set up and a payment to me sorted.

 

After about 3 weeks and a lot of messing around the benefit delivery centre were due to call me today to arrange a same day payment. When they hadn't by 11am I phoned them and the contact centre told me that, even though they hadn't completed their call back they had sent a FP at 8:55 this morning and it would be in my account by 5pm at the latest. I phoned back at 3pm just to get a second opinion and again it was all confirmed to me, while the bdc hadn't called me they had sent a same day payment.

 

5pm comes and no payment. I call at 5:10 and get through to someone at 5:50 who confirms a payment has been sent and it should be there.

 

He did notice though that the account the payment was sent to is different to the one I was mentioning...

 

In fact they have sent the payment to the bank account used for my old claim, this bank account being in someone elses name (with me being completely estranged from that person).

 

I know that they have had my new account details because on occasion when I've phoned up they've asked for the last 4 digits of my acc number or my sort code as security and it's been my new (current account). So somehow they've ballsed up and sent the money to somewhere I didn't authorise for this claim.

 

What are my rights with this?

 

They've sent my money to a different person, using details that I gave them last year but from a claim that has been closed for over 10 months. They ignored my new bank details.

 

My housing benefit which I applied for at the same time on the same online form has been paid to my new account so I know it's gone through on the form.

 

If they'd called me as requested I could have confirmed my account details again over the phone.

 

I'm absolutely desperate for the cash now but I have no contact with the person they've paid it to

 

Have I just lost out here?

[flumps1976]

It sounds as though the previous bank account information has held from your last claim.

The call backs have been extended this week frpom 3 to 24 hours for this week only due to the increase in calls anticipated after the jubilee bank holiday.

If the money has been paid into an old closed account I'm not sure tbh what they can do apart from wait for the money to be bounced back from the bank stating it is a closed account.

[DH84]

It sounds as though the previous bank account information has held from your last claim.

The call backs have been extended this week frpom 3 to 24 hours for this week only due to the increase in calls anticipated after the jubilee bank holiday.

If the money has been paid into an old closed account I'm not sure tbh what they can do apart from wait for the money to be bounced back from the bank stating it is a closed account.

 

Hi, thanks for the reply. Thing is, I don't know if it's a closed account or not. It's not my account though :-/ so essentially I could lose out on that payment or at least have it delayed quite a bit due to an error on the benefit delivery centre's part?

 

As I say I know they do have the correct details as they fed through correctly to housing benefit and they've used the correct details for my security questions on occasion.

 

It just seems a little unfair tbh

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Did you put your new details on your claim form?, if you did and they can see this then from the input doc then I would think you have every right to get that payment replaced straight away.... Whoever has done the FEP has clearly got the details off the system and not off the new claim.

 

If you are sure you are in the right ring and ask for it to be looked at again...

[flumps1976]

So the account belongs to someone else then, are you still in contact with that person? Could you ask them to check if the money is there and if tey could pass it back to you?

I'm not sure but I think once the money has been credited they are unable to recall the money and if the other person refuses to hand over the money (I'm basing this part on someone who doesn't have their own account and is able to use someone elses account for benefit payments) the only thing you can do is contact the police to report theft as they are keeping something that isn't their's iygwim?

As you are no longer in contact (sorry for the assumption) with the original person and you provided new account details there would be reason for complaint and to request that they payment is recalled asap to be paid to you correctly. I would then follow it up with a letter of complaint tbh.

This is yet another example of how old the JSAP system is and that it is no longer fit for purpose, not sure of te UC system will fair much better though

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Flumps if the claims has just been processed though and new details have been supplied but the money hasnt been paid into the bank correct account, how would that work on a JSA claim then

On a I.S Bank Liason would contact the bank for us to see if the money could be got back, eg the bank would write to the person the account belonged to and chase it

But it would be the processers fault if the wrong details had been used

I suppose it all hinges what is on the input doc?

Edited June 6, 2012 by MIKEY DABODEE

[Tiger Lily]

Was it your first payment on the new claim then? if so and you supplied different account details, ring tomorrow and report the FP as lost, there is form for a missing ACT payment think its a QB52 or 42. You will sign this form to say you havent received the money, explain its gone into an the wrong account, a line manager will look at it to see if it can be replaced. Ifs its a error on the dept side they may replace.

[DH84]

Flumps if the claims has just been processed though and new details have been supplied but the money hasnt been paid into the bank correct account, how would that work on a JSA claim then

On a I.S Bank Liason would contact the bank for us to see if the money could be got back, eg the bank would write to the person the account belonged to and chase it

But it would be the processers fault if the wrong details had been used

I suppose it all hinges what is on the input doc?

 

Hi both, thanks for the replies. Just as an addendum I copied and printed the forms as I submitted them and the correct bank details are on those forms. This is further corroborates by the fact that housing benefit, using the same online form data have made a payment to the correct account. It's a processor error. It's easy to do i guess but I'm not really in the position where I can afford to miss out because of it :-/

 

As far as I'm aware faster payments are fully cleared the moment they hit the account and can not be recalled. Hopefully that account is now closed in which case I imagine they could retrieve it quite easily from the holding account it had been assigned to. If the account is open however then surely it's for the Dwp to negotiate retrieving it? By not sending it to the correct account they've not only caused me hardship but they've also potentially revealed some rather sensitive information about my current financial position to someone I haven't authorised them to without going in to any personal details i'd really rather not have this person know I'm currently on JSA :-/

 

Oh well, what's done is done. If you guys think I have a decent chance of being able to request an urgent payment to the correct account (providing the info I've given you is correct ofc)? I'd be quite happy to leave it at that really

[DH84]

Was it your first payment on the new claim then? if so and you supplied different account details, ring tomorrow and report the FP as lost, there is form for a missing ACT payment think its a QB52 or 42. You will sign this form to say you havent received the money, explain its gone into an the wrong account, a line manager will look at it to see if it can be replaced. Ifs its a error on the dept side they may replace.

 

Hi, yep first payment on a new claim. Thanks for info on qb42. I'll see what comes of it tomorrow. thanks loads

[MIKEY DABODEE]

if you have just made the claim and suppled new bank details on that claim form, then these should have been input onto the system for you.

Sometimes the system has a mind of its own, it pull the details through from any old claims that may have been made, and I think this has happended.

Your new claim has been put on, but instead of inputting the new account details the processerc has just left the old ones on.

So when the FP was paid, this is a clerical payment made on a different system, they have just used the old details.

If the FP hadnt been paid today then the benefit would have still been paid into the old account through the system

What they should have done of course is update the system with your new details.

 

If the bank account is closed it will bounce back but if not the Dept will chase the money.

you should ring tomorrow and report the FP as lost, ie paid into the wrong account they should do the for QB42, I get them mixed up

after signing they will look at replacing, but will check to see what info you have provided.

FP once they hit the account cant be recalled but Bank Liason will liase with the bank to get it returned because that money clearly doenst belong to the person who owns the account

You need to make sure they are holding your correct account number anyway as next fortnights money will go in as well unless stopped

[antone]

Flumps if the claims has just been processed though and new details have been supplied but the money hasnt been paid into the bank correct account, how would that work on a JSA claim then

On a I.S Bank Liason would contact the bank for us to see if the money could be got back, eg the bank would write to the person the account belonged to and chase it

But it would be the processers fault if the wrong details had been used

I suppose it all hinges what is on the input doc?

 

Don't know about JSA, but on ESA if there was no doubt at all that it was an admin error (as this certainly appears to be) then I would have requested my EO to pay the customer an immediate FEP using JSAPS Dialogue 490 ("Pay any amount I feel like paying to anyone I want" - a dialogue that I understand not all benefits have) and then passed it to Bank Liason to see what they could do, probably via a QB42. Then I'd feel glad I wasn't in the shoes of the processor who made the mistake...

[DH84]

Don't know about JSA, but on ESA if there was no doubt at all that it was an admin error (as this certainly appears to be) then I would have requested my EO to pay the customer an immediate FEP using JSAPS Dialogue 490 ("Pay any amount I feel like paying to anyone I want" - a dialogue that I understand not all benefits have) and then passed it to Bank Liason to see what they could do, probably via a QB42. Then I'd feel glad I wasn't in the shoes of the processor who made the mistake...

 

Hi, further update. The contact centre supervisor was due to phone directly through to jsa this morning and get me a call back by 9:30. When it didn't materialise I went down to the jc for midday and they were very sympathetic and called directly through. While they were on the call the person they were speaking to got the forms out and admitted it was their error as my new details were on the application. They asked for my mobile number and said they were going to fix it and call me back...

 

Just over 3 hours later and no call back the last giro time for the jc is 4pm so looking like no payt today either I'm at a complete loss now as to what to do? I've been really patient and polite but they just don't seem willing to engage with me to try and find a solution :-/.

 

Has anyone got any advice?

[ErikaPNP]

Did you get your payment?

[DH84]

No, I called the contact centre again and got put on a 1hr call back but they only got back to me just before 5 so fep will be tomorrow now :-/ oh well.

[ErikaPNP]

Goodness sake what a carry on. If it isn't there, phone again and insist on an 'escalation' to a higher manager. I hope all goes ok tomorrow.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

hope you get your FP tomorrow, into the right account