Why won’t my bank let me withdraw my permitted weekly spending limit?

When the claimant obtains the freezing injunction it will be served on your bank(s) and the bank(s) will freeze your accounts entirely. This is because the bank might be liable to the claimant for any loss if it permits a breach of the injunction by allowing you to use your monies once it has notice of the injunction. The most effective way of ensuring compliance with the injunction is to prevent any withdrawals at all. This is despite there being protections for banks built in to the order to the effect that if the payment appears to be permitted by the order the bank does not have to make any further enquiry. 

Usually before making any payments the bank will require the claimant’s solicitors to confirm in writing that a particular payment is permitted. The solicitors will be reluctant to do this if they believe that you have not properly complied with the disclosure obligations; the claimant will assert that until all of your assets have been disclosed they cannot police the adherence to the terms relating to the exceptions to the order permitting legal expenses and living expenses to be paid. 

Once the procedures have been put in place for the payments out of your account, the process is normally easier and the banks are more comfortable in allowing payments to be made.