Support for Mortgage Interest Discussion Area

123joe

Dannyw wrote: »

My son was made redundant end Dec 08 & signed on to receive contribution based JSA @£47/wk early Jan 09. Having bought his own house 14 months ago he asked what support there was available for mortgage interest payments & was advised for him... none. If he was renting, had a child, etc he could have support but as a single male aged 20+... tough. Where is this mythical government support???

the way i see it sometimes : white, single, hetrosexual and male = bottom of the pile!

there does seem to be something very wrong with the benefits system, jsa £60.50 a week , £242 a month approx, food and general shopping, gas electric, water, phone, internet, the latter two being essential for job seeking and most would add car to that list, so exactly how does £60.50 a week cover that, is that suffice for anyone?

you use up all your savings, hope to cover the mortgage untill you can get help with that but all you're doing is increasing your mortgage in the hope you find work in an increasingly tough enviroment, i don't know where it's all going...... help?

[Deleted User]

Ceri_Edwards wrote: »

I have been claiming Income Support since 13th Jan and no-one seems to be able to tell me in simple terms how to apply for the support for mortgage interest...I have spoken to the Abbey and they say they have no direction from their HO and therefore litigation procedures will commence if my mortgage is unpaid...the same for my local Job centre as of yesterday they told me that they were totally unaware of the 13 wks and they are stating 39 weeks.........!!

The jc+ and dwp are in a terrible muddle over this,to claim you request a form(someone here will know which)from the dwp,it is definately 13 weeks and has been since 5/1/09,if the period before that is going to cause you problems speak to your lender again(preferably their H/O)ask what help they can offer meanwhile,maybe 3 months of interest only,or 3 defered payments?

zappster1966

Form MI12 should be issued automatically by DWP a few weeks before your mortgage qualifying date ... you complete Parts 1-6 (nothing complex, name, address, insurance number, loan reference number, lender name & address etc) then it gets passed on to the lender to complete the rest. The lender should return it straight to DWP, at which point it's assessed & the payments kick in.

Ocean007

If anyone has trouble convincing staff that it's now a 13 week waiting time (or wants to confirm for themselves) the dwp has an excellent document at

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/resourcecentre/mortgage-interest-changes.pdf

which is the most comprehensive info I've found on SMI.

abranch

The information was interesting on the DWP form. I am a existing claimant and rang my office about the new rules etc as I thought our capital limit was going to be raised to £200k. They informed me that it is only for new claimants only and not excisting.
I am not sure what it means in the form about the new capital limit as it states the new limit will be for new claimants and some excisting. We claim income support and we receive help with our mortgage help as my husband receives now DLA at the highest rate and I receive the carer's premium as I have had to give up work to look after him for the time being. Would we fall in to the catagory of the group which the capital limit would be raised. I am really confused about it and is it worth appealing as it would benefit us alot if they raised the capital to £200k as we have abig mortgage

mummytofour

abranch wrote: »

The information was interesting on the DWP form. I am a existing claimant and rang my office about the new rules etc as I thought our capital limit was going to be raised to £200k. They informed me that it is only for new claimants only and not excisting.
I am not sure what it means in the form about the new capital limit as it states the new limit will be for new claimants and some excisting. We claim income support and we receive help with our mortgage help as my husband receives now DLA at the highest rate and I receive the carer's premium as I have had to give up work to look after him for the time being. Would we fall in to the catagory of the group which the capital limit would be raised. I am really confused about it and is it worth appealing as it would benefit us alot if they raised the capital to £200k as we have abig mortgage

Yes you should fall into the 200k bracket as i am in the same situation. I was on the old 50% and was still in my 39 period, but got bumped up in jan to the new rate, I hope that makes sense?

abranch

With regards to me being put up to the £200k limit. I have already served the 39 week period so at the moment they are paying 100% up to £100k and have not put me in the next limit of £200k so I don't really know where that leaves us. I don't know whether it is worth appealing due to me getting the carers premium as it would help us alot.

BevG_2

My husband is claiming JSA but I earn £35k. Our mortgage is about £1300 pm (about £200000). Are we entitled to any Support for Mortgage Interest?

Thanks

Ocean007

abranch wrote: »

With regards to me being put up to the £200k limit. I have already served the 39 week period so at the moment they are paying 100% up to £100k and have not put me in the next limit of £200k so I don't really know where that leaves us. I don't know whether it is worth appealing due to me getting the carers premium as it would help us alot.

abranch, as you noticed when you looked at the DWP document (http://www.dwp.gov.uk/resourcecentre/mortgage-interest-changes.pdf) the phrase 'new working age claims, and some repeat and existing claims' comes up a lot. I've read most of the document but not really thoroughly. It might be worth you checking the whole thing to see if they actually define who would fall into this category.

As the document is an Equality Imact Assessment and it explains how they have tried to ensure people already claiming are not unfairly treated by the new change, it seems to me that you have a strong argument that you do fall into this category and should get the new upper claim limit.

Bearing in mind that staff at the DWP aren't up to speed yet I would suggest pulling together any evidence (ie photocopies of relevant bit of this document) to add to your claim if you appeal. I suspect, if the 'some' aren't clearly defined anywhere then the decision making staff would need to make a decision on a case by case basis and the stronger and clearer your argument the more likely you are to win.

My guess is that at some point if someone feels they haven't been treated fairly they'll go to their MP who will raise this issue on their behalf and the situation will be more formally clarified in the rules.

Good luck, in my opinion I think you should receive the extra benefit as if you had only just reached the new 13 week limit now you would be eligible for the full amount. To not give you the extra would seem to discriminate you unfairly for having already been claiming when the new rules came in and I can't see how that could be justified especially if you reiterate that your partner's disabled and you are a carer.

Ocean007

BevG wrote: »

My husband is claiming JSA but I earn £35k. Our mortgage is about £1300 pm (about £200000). Are we entitled to any Support for Mortgage Interest?

Thanks

BevG, the form your husband would need to fill in doesn't ask about partners income (although it does ask for all names on the mortgage) so I think (and sorry, this is just an educated guess) that the decision to give SMI is awarded purely on his status of having claimed JSA for 13 weeks or more. The DWP link in previous posts may be worth a look.

I'd certainly make the claim if I was in your position and see what happens. Your husband will need to ask for the form from the jobcentre as they are not automatically sending it out to people when they become eligible. Good luck.