(1) Notwithstanding any enactment or rule of law, where sums are due to the Minister or the Social Insurance Fund in accordance with section 336 or 338 because benefit, assistance, child benefit, working family payment, continued payment for qualified children or back to work family dividend which was intended for a beneficiary was paid to a financial institution for the credit of an account kept with that institution by the beneficiary and he or she dies before the payment or payments were made, the benefit, assistance, child benefit, working family payment, continued payment for qualified children or back to work family dividend may be recovered from the financial institution in accordance with subsection (2).

(2) The Minister may give written notice to a financial institution requiring the institution to pay to the Minister, within the period specified in the notice, the lesser of the following amounts:

(a) the amount specified in the notice, being the amount of benefit, assistance, child benefit, working family payment, continued payment for qualified children or back to work family dividendrecoverable in accordance with subsection (1); or

(b) the amount standing to the credit of the account when the notice is received by the institution;