Help with Mortgage when unemployed

raccoon_2

Hi everyone. I am new to the forums. I have read a few very interesting posts but cannot find one for my question, which is.... I will of been unemployed for Six months in October after 25 years with the same company. I know that does not matter. Anyway, I dont have mortgage protection, well I did have till about one year ago when it got cancelled and I never started one back up. Anyway, I will be wanting to try to claim some sort of help with my mortgage from the 23rd October. Do I just tell them at the jobcenter or do I fill in some more forms.
Hope some one can give me some guiudence. I dont like to sit about the jobcenter any longer than necesary.
Thanks in advance.

Oldernotwiser

raccoon wrote: »

Hi everyone. I am new to the forums. I have read a few very interesting posts but cannot find one for my question, which is.... I will of been unemployed for Six months in October after 25 years with the same company. I know that does not matter. Anyway, I dont have mortgage protection, well I did have till about one year ago when it got cancelled and I never started one back up. Anyway, I will be wanting to try to claim some sort of help with my mortgage from the 23rd October. Do I just tell them at the jobcenter or do I fill in some more forms.
Hope some one can give me some guiudence. I dont like to sit about the jobcenter any longer than necesary.
Thanks in advance.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I'm afraid that you can't get any help with your mortgage until you've been registered as unemployed for 39 weeks. Sorry.

matimage

Jesus! Is that right??
So if both my wife and I lost our jobs, we would be homeless? I have worked all my life but I thought there was a bit of a better safety net than 39 weeks!
Crikey, makes you think...

pinkshoes

matimage wrote: »

Jesus! Is that right??
So if both my wife and I lost our jobs, we would be homeless? I have worked all my life but I thought there was a bit of a better safety net than 39 weeks!
Crikey, makes you think...

I think it works on the basis that you should have enough savings to pay your mortgage for at least 6 months (preferably 12) should you lose your job. Not many people bother doing this.

I think there's also a limit on how much you can claim. Interest only on a mortgage up to £100k I think... although I'm sure someone told me that from next year it'll be changing.

Oldernotwiser

matimage wrote: »

Jesus! Is that right??
So if both my wife and I lost our jobs, we would be homeless? I have worked all my life but I thought there was a bit of a better safety net than 39 weeks!
Crikey, makes you think...

I think that it's going down to 13 weeks next year.

matimage

Hmm, luckily I have no dept (apart from that big one called a mortgage) and a fair amount of savings so I think in reality we wouldn't be homeless but like you say, I am sure most people wouldn't have 12 months saved.

raccoon_2

Although not what I needed to hear, I still thankyou for your reply. Looks like I might be in the preverbial then. Jobs up here are not easy to come by. That is unless you want one for the minimum and learn to speak Polish. Either way, wether I get a job or not it does not boed well for the future. Still I can always rent out the house and live in the shed.

pinkshoes

Could you take in a lodger? It's a great short term measure for extra cash if you have a spare room, and lodgers have very few rights, so if you don't like them, you can boot them out!

honeypop

matimage wrote: »

Jesus! Is that right??
So if both my wife and I lost our jobs, we would be homeless? I have worked all my life but I thought there was a bit of a better safety net than 39 weeks!

You could get Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance or Income Protection Insurance for this very reason.

raccoon_2

Hi everyone. Well I have been onto the Jobcentre and the rule is that if your partner works over 24 hours a week you not entitalled to anything. Also it is six months for a time limit. So this means we will be in a pickle after middle November when it does stop. I am unemployed so cannot get any insurance till I start work again. Still I got a caravan so I can sleep in there and send my wife back to her parents. LOL.
Thanks to you all for your posts.

ceridwen

Hi

I'm sorry to hear of your predicament. I think its appalling that a job loss might also equal the loss of one's home.

Just one thought - I remember back when I took out my mortgage back in the 1980s that I knew that if the worst came to the worst that the D.H.S.S. (as they then were) would have to pay all my mortgage interest (however much the mortgage was for) and that would start right away. As long as my mortgage was a repayment mortgage (not an endowment mortgage) then I was safe no matter what - bar my building society being awkward about me not paying back the "capital" part on my mortgage payments until I got back into work (and it was highly unlikely that they would be awkward - as I had picked a reputable one). I remember when the "dole office" started cutting back on help given with mortgage interest - I recall when they brought in the requirement to be out of work for a certain length of time before they started covering the mortgage interest and thought "how awful - some people will have problems because of this". As I remember - there was a date laid down: all those with mortgages taken out before that date were disqualified from receiving mortgage interest for a certain length of time (think it might have been 9 weeks? unsure on that). All those who had taken out their mortgage after that date were disqualified from getting mortgage interest for that 39 weeks mentioned.

I cant recall the exact date when that cut was brought in - I think it could have been some time in the 1990s??? I only recall thinking "whew I'm safe" at the time it came in. So it may be that your mortgage was taken out before that date - worth finding out what it is perhaps?