If your bank or building society account is overdrawn and you are worried that you won’t be able to access your Support payment, you can contact you bank/building society to exercise a ‘first right of appropriation of funds order’. This means that the bank/building society can’t use your Support payment to pay the overdraft.

You need to write a letter to your bank/building society at least seven days before your payment is due to be made into your bank/building society account, to explain that you are expecting a £500 payment (the NHS Test and Trace Support Payment), and how you would like to spend the money. 

For example, you may want to instruct your bank/building society:

‘On or around 1st November East Staffordshire Borough Council will pay a £500 NHS Test and Trace Support Payment into my account number 01234567. I am exercising my first right of appropriation over these funds and wish you to pay the following items from it: £XXX standing order payable to XXX on 5th of the month.’

Keep a copy of the letter in case there is any dispute later. You may want to ask your bank/building society for a written acknowledgement of your instructions.

If there are any items you no longer want to pay from your account, or which you cannot afford, you should give your bank/building society separate cancellation instructions. This is because the first right of appropriation does not stop the bank/building society paying items as well as those you have listed. If you do not cancel these items, your bank/building society may return the items as unpaid, which they may charge you for. However, payments from your account to re-pay a loan with the same bank/building society cannot be cancelled