My stepdaughter has withdrawn a large sum of money from a joint account that is mine and her name. She has bank hopped to find it as she did not know the name of the bank or any account details. My husband is currently paying child support, do we report to child support that she has received this money? We have little to no contact with her, this account was to be a gift one day to her. She is almost 18, has dropped out of school and works. Any advice?
11 Replies
As her name is on the account unfortunately I don't think there is much that you can do. Legally she is allowed to access it
Firstly I hope you've removed the balance to an account that's only your name. Its possible she had a daily limit and will be back for more.
Once the rest is secured I would go directly to her. Ask her if it was her or someone else, ask her what she did with the money, why she didn't ask or speak about it, why she felt entitled to it. If it's never been mentioned, that's theft, it's not her money she didn't put it in, regardless of whose name is on the account she needs to know adults don't get away with that, she can be taken to court to pay it back.
But if there is no legit reasonable conversation to be had, then I think, as it was for hers, I would let her know trust is gone as you consider it stealing and I probably wouldn't give her the rest of the balance either.
Child Support is between Mum and Dad, so the fact that she took the money has nothing to do with Child Support I’m afraid!
If she lodged a tax return, it may have come up through that due to interest earned
That's her money so no it won't count as child support. If she illegally accessed it then report it to the bank or the police.
How does any one, let alone a child, "bank hop" and manage to find and access an account that they had no details for?
If she knew whose names were on the account and roughly how much was in the account it would have been quite easy, she would just need to ring each major bank and say "Hi I have an account with you that I want to transfer money out of" then they would ask her all the ID and account questions and she has the money. If it was an account that needed a signature for withdrawal she would have done it face to face. OP should have had both account names needing to sign for withdrawal.
She withdrew money from her own account. Technically she has done nothing wrong and child support won’t do anything.
You were going to give the money to her one day anyway.
Have you had confirmation it was her? Did she know about the account? Declare it to CSA but I'm not sure it will make any difference as I was told by them that children's income is not considered in assessments. This might be different if it's a large amount. Are you sure she is still living with her mother? The withdrawal may have been because she needed it? You can always ask CSA to do a review on the situation?
I’m thinking dad was avoiding paying tax by setting up an account in her name...