# Trying to locate a payment which appears to be lost in BACS



## monky (22 Aug 2008)

Hello

The Child Benefit Office in the Irish Republic issued payments to my Alliance & Leciester account in Northern Ireland in July and August. These payments have not shown up in my A&L account. I contacted the Child Benefit Office and they say that the payments where issued through the Bank of Ireland in the republic and so far they have not come back as rejections so they are unwilling to do anything for me, not even request a trace to see what has happened to the payments. 

The A&L say that they have not received the payments so they can't do anything. I think the problem occured because I sent my account no as 9 digits and I believe that BACS only uses 8 digits.

I contaced BACS and they say that only the presenting bank can trace it. At the moment I dont know what to do as no-one appears to be willing to find out where these payments went to. To all intent and purposes they appear to be lost in BACS. Which I am told has never happened. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance 
Monky


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## GeneralZod (23 Aug 2008)

If they came back as rejected to the ROI office then it sounds like there's nothing to trace as the money never made it out.
Presumably they should be using  an IBAN number which will have the BACS number as a component of it to pay into your account.


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## monky (23 Aug 2008)

They haven't come back as rejections

I contacted the Child Benefit Office and they say that the payments where issued through the Bank of Ireland in the republic *and so far they have not come back as rejections *

Monky


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## bond-007 (25 Aug 2008)

That means that the money made it to someone else's bank account.


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## monky (25 Aug 2008)

Thanks,I thought about that, the A&L have assured me that if they used the first 8 digits or last 8 digits of my account that it would not be lodged to anyone's account, hopefully that's true,


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## IWONDER (26 Aug 2008)

Hi Monky,

Have you asked the CB office to supply you with proof that a payment was made? I know you say they are unwilling to do a trace, but surely they can't just assume they were made as they didn't receive a rejection report. Maybe someone noticed the fact that the receiving account number was 9 digits and meant to query it and didn't actually put it through?
Having some knowledge of how BOI process their transactions - credit/ eft transfers etc, I would expect them to supply the social welfare with proof of whatever transactions they have processed for them, ie. in report form.
You could ask the sw to check their reports for the day that payment would have been made to see if your details show up.
sorry if this is confusing, am posting in a hurry, but will be back on later.


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## Towger (26 Aug 2008)

Umm... Does the Child Benefit Office in the Irish Republic, even have the capability to make payments into BACS, which is after all the British clearing system?


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## monky (26 Aug 2008)

That's a question I never thought about. I assume so. At this stage I dont have any idea what happened the payments. Mabye they can't pay to UK and that's the problem.


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## bond-007 (26 Aug 2008)

I would indeed believe that is the problem.


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## IWONDER (26 Aug 2008)

ignore - see next post


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## IWONDER (26 Aug 2008)

Towger said:


> Umm... Does the Child Benefit Office in the Irish Republic, even have the capability to make payments into BACS, which is after all the British clearing system?


 
No - that isn't where the problem lies.

BOI most definitely send data to BACS, and vice versa, and it is BOI that are handling these payments. So CB office send data to BOI and they send on to BACS.


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