Can't re open closed bank account

can anyone help me .i switched banks in june but unawares to me a social welfare payment was sent to my old bank account .the social welfare have provided me with the details of the account they made the payment to including the date.because the account is closed the bank are telling me they cant recall my account.social welfare cannot re issue the payment until the other one has been returned ...the bank just keeps fobbing me off dont know what else to do

Surely the payments from SW to a now closed account bounced back to them?

Quite right Clubman. Payment should have either bounced back to SW or else redirected to new a/c, if switching instructions were in place.

A closed a/c cannot accept any transactions. Get SW to check back to see if payment was returned to them.

the bank account wasnt closed at the time sw made two payments in july but only one was returned

DEBBIEC said:

the bank account wasnt closed at the time sw made two payments in july but only one was returned

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If there was a negative balance on the account when closed, the first SW payment would have been used to clear the account. Could this have happened?

Yeah - if you closed the account and it had a positive balance then you should have received the funds. Maybe, as bond-007 suggests, the SW payment covered some shortfall/overdraft or something? One way or another the money could not have gone into "limbo" as far as I know.

What info was on the closing account statement?