AIBU to ask for help - bank has lost UC

[MrsNacho]

My sister was told she would receive her Universal Credit payment on 22nd of Dec which would have been early, it was due on 27th.

On 22nd the payment didn't go in so her partner rang and asked them to retract that payment (which would have gone in on the correct due date 27/12) and issue am emergency payment.
He was told that doing this would delay the payment further but insisted, thinking he would then get the money on that day, 22nd.
Of course Universal Credit wouldn't re-issue the payment because they wanted to wait for the retracted payment to show up.
Now they have still yet to receive this money. Universal credit are saying they have sent it to the bank on the 27th.
The bank were saying they had it but it would take 3 -5 days to clear.
Today is the 5th day and they are now saying they can't find the payment.

I know my sister's partner is an idiot and it's his own fault for trying to get the money sooner but my sister and my niece are now suffering for his mistake with no sign of the money.
Does anyone have any idea how banks work and can advise on the next step to take?

3-5 working days. As new year and christmas is in between I wouldn’t expect this to get sorted until next Monday at the earliest. Can dwp sort out an emergency cash payment?

One for their MP? You're not going to get competence from the UC dept of the DWP, so may as well go big.

If the bank your sister holds an account with can't see the payment, then the issue is with the UC dept or the bank they use. Assuming it was sent via BACS it should show in your sister's account right away as cleared funds. Possibly the UC people recalled the second payment too in error?

Are you sure it the bank? I rang my bank to look for a missing child benefit payment and was told they would never withhold benefit payments.

Thanks for replying, she thinks it is the bank because they said they could see the payment bit it needed to be cleared manually and takes 3 to 5 days but now they are denying all knowledge.

How do you go about contacting your MP?

@Raving wouldn't it be

Day 1 - 27th
Day 2 - 28th
Day 3 - 29th
Day 4 - 2nd
Day 5 - 3rd

So today is day 6?

Google for your local Law Centre and contact them. I've found one phone call from a solicitor makes them sort it out sharpish.

No because it takes time to clear back to DWP and it will take time to clear back to the bank. The friend’s partner was an idiot.

I love to bash the DWP as much as the next person but this isn't the DWPs fault.
They can't just take his word for it having been sent back - otherwise everyone could try that and get 2 payments!
Who on earth thinks
"Oh no, my payment hasn't cleared yet. Guess I'll get them to do it all again and it'll be faster"?
What an idiot.

What on earth will a solicitor do???
They aren't refusing to pay him. He had the payment cancelled and now they can't resend it until they have that money back. Common sense.
If you sent someone £100 and they wanted you to cancel and resend, would anyone do so without having the original £100 back? I know I wouldn't.

They could try asking the DWP for a short-term benefit advance to give them some funds while it's sorted out.

Did everyone miss the bit where the bank lost the payment?

Is it a joint claim between them both op?

They can retract the bank payment and issue a giro the same day that she can collect from her job centre. Have they requested this?

She may need to supply a screenshot of her online banking to show that no money was deposited into her account but that's simple enough.

Giros dont exist anymore.

Did they recall the original UC payment from her account to stop it going in on 27th?
Was the new payment done as a same day payment? If it was it should have cleared into her account on 22nd by midnight

Has your sister previously received a UC payment and has it previously been credited to her account? I used to work for a bank many years ago and if a payment had the incorrect account details on it would bounce and go into a holding account, it could then manually be credited to her account but not all banks/members of staff will do so. If it’s been rejected it will go into a DWP holding account and need to be routed to the correct place - as I said it’s been some time since I worked in a bank and things could have changed but that’s what used to happen.

I work in a bank and as far as I know benefit payments don't get paid on a weekend (27th) so will be next working day, which would be Tuesday, so today in theory is the 3rd day.

Ignore me am still in Christmas New Year phase of not actually knowing what day it is ...sorry

Initially it sounds like the bank's issue. However, maybe I'm confused but when did they send the original payment which got retracted? If it was due on 27th, it'd be released around 21/22nd and couldn't have been sent back that quickly and then released an emergency one same day? Was that the first one on the 27th which would be why the bank can't locate it? It is true BACS takes a minimum of 3 working days.

Unfortunately having dealt with UC on other people's behalf many times, occasionally you have to get the full picture between it all. They need to be extra nice when calling as they really do not say much anyway and when having a bad day and/or to stick to targets tend to only say what is absolutely necessary.

Also today is the 5th day imo, I wouldn't have counted the release day.