URGENT Changes to Morgage Interest Support [merged]

dmg24

dave030445 wrote: »

this is the reply from my MP
dont much that we didnt know before

Thank you for your message. The reason for the change was that the current rate is set far above the average rate being paid by people receiving the support. 3.67% is the average amount being paid in mortgage interest, as calculated by the Bank of England. Prior to this we were paying out far more in support than people were paying themselves in mortgage interest. We have had extensive discussions with the Mortgage industry about the changes, and they have assured us that they will ensure that people do not lose their homes. Can you let me know what discussions you have had with your lender, and what rate you are currently paying.

He's not ConDem by any chance is he? I don't hold out much hope with him!

I'm not feeling up to it tonight, but if you can hang on 24 hours I can think of some more specific questions to ask him, as well as giving him the information he has asked for.

dave030445

dmg24 wrote: »

He's not ConDem by any chance is he? I don't hold out much hope with him!

I'm not feeling up to it tonight, but if you can hang on 24 hours I can think of some more specific questions to ask him, as well as giving him the information he has asked for.

yes he is con how did you guess

Tara100

Hi Dave


From your post above at #101

We have had extensive discussions with the Mortgage industry about the changes, and they have assured us that they will ensure that people do not lose their homes.

If you chat with 'Tim nice but dim' again, will you tell him this is definitely not the case, and ask how he can make such a sweeping and dismissive statement please?

Standard Life told me last week that there are no new waivers, and that I could basically be only 3 months in arrears before repossession proceedings begin.
There are no extra allowances due to this change in October; if you fall behind in top up payments, you can say bye bye to your home.


Tara

Daaisy

Tara100 wrote: »

Hi Dave


From your post above at #101

We have had extensive discussions with the Mortgage industry about the changes, and they have assured us that they will ensure that people do not lose their homes.

If you chat with 'Tim nice but dim' again, will you tell him this is definitely not the case, and ask how he can make such a sweeping and dismissive statement please?

Standard Life told me last week that there are no new waivers, and that I could basically be only 3 months in arrears before repossession proceedings begin.
There are no extra allowances due to this change in October; if you fall behind in top up payments, you can say bye bye to your home.


Tara

Tim nice but dim........I like it -lol !!!!!!

I may just ring my building society tomorrow and tell them about these extensive discussions and see what they have to say..........

mind i think they must have forgotten my building society, because when i rang them they asked me what it said in my letter because they hadn't been informed of the effective date or of the % the interest rate was being reduced too

My building society ,Monmouthshire Building Society, told me on monday that they had no plans to lower the amounts due to be paid by people in receipt of mortgage interest support just because their benefits have been cut.

I was told in no uncertain terms that they were a business and that our shortfalls were not their responsibility.

Which to be honest is a completely fair comment

Its a bit like going to tescos with a basket of shopping and saying sorry i can only pay you for half of this, because i have had to pay the rest of my money to the building society........tescos wouldnt let you do it so why should the building societies have to take a loss because of poor government decisions.

Basically if you can't afford to pay our mortgage you'd better do what i'm doing and get up a ladder with a paintbrush and try and get as much as you can for your your house.......... of course thats assuming that you can find someone to buy it.............

I think I feel a letter to my MP coming on lol !!!

Daaisy

Broken_hearted

Woolwich is offering help in the form of telling us how much they think they will get from a repossession. Any arrears will not be tollerated at all, we found this out the hard way a few months ago when they change the payment dates by switching it from a Barclays mortgage to a Woolwich one. Result less than a month in arrears a debt collector sent to the door and £285 charges applied, they have said they will refund around half after FOS got involved. My faith in them being any help is shattered God help anyone with them who has a huge deficit.

[Deleted User]

I was always under the impression with a mortgage that NO action could be taken until you are 3 months in arrears?

Tara100

Broken_hearted wrote: »

Woolwich is offering help in the form of telling us how much they think they will get from a repossession. Any arrears will not be tollerated at all, we found this out the hard way a few months ago when they change the payment dates by switching it from a Barclays mortgage to a Woolwich one. Result less than a month in arrears a debt collector sent to the door and £285 charges applied, they have said they will refund around half after FOS got involved. My faith in them being any help is shattered God help anyone with them who has a huge deficit.

Broken hearted

Have you considered making a formal complaint to The Woolwich (and Barclays) as they appear to be breaching their own terms and conditions?

Your credit rating will be quite damaged by the arrears (as mortgage arrears are considered the worst) but the rating could be amended by The Woolwich. If I were in your shoes, I would be kicking up a right stink to be honest......



Info taken from: http://www.woolwich.co.uk/mortgages/cannot-meet-repayments.html

What happens if you can´t pay your mortgage


If you are having trouble making your mortgage payments, we are committed to trying to help you. This explains how we will treat you fairly if you are in arrears with your mortgage, and what steps you can take to help yourself. This also provides useful information if you are concerned about falling behind with your mortgage payments.


What we will do


We will contact you at an early stage to discuss your problem, both in writing and, where possible, by phone, so that together we can agree how we can help you.

We will try to arrange a new payment plan with you, taking your financial circumstances and our interests into account.

We will give you reasonable time to pay back any missing payments, and would only start proceedings to repossess your home as a last resort, when all other reasonable options have been exhausted.

We will give you details of organisations who can give you debt advice (for example, Citizens Advice Bureau), and we will talk to them if you want us to. See "Other useful contacts" below.

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How we might be able to help you


Change the way you make your payments, or the date you make them during the month (although the contractual payment date will remain unchanged).

Allow you to pay back your mortgage over a longer period of time (which would reduce your monthly payments, but increase the overall cost).

Allow you to pay reduced payments or just the interest payments for a period of time (which would reduce your monthly payments, but increase the overall cost).

We would normally expect to be able to agree an appropriate arrangement with you. If we can make one of these arrangements with you, we will explain how it would work and give you time to consider it. If we cannot offer any of these options, we will tell you why. We might agree to you remaining in the property to sell the property yourself depending on your circumstances.
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What you can do to help yourself


Tell us as soon as possible if you are having problems repaying your mortgage or think that you might experience problems shortly.

Seek debt advice if you would like help with managing your finances.

Contact us quickly, if we try to contact you.

Make sure you keep any other people paying the mortgage, and anyone guaranteeing the mortgage, up to date with what is happening.

Keep to the payment plan we agree with you, or tell us if there is a change in your circumstances which may affect the arrangement. If you do not make the agreed payments, we might have to go to court to get back any money you owe us, or to repossess your property.

Check whether you can get any state benefits or tax credits which could help to increase your income.

If you have an insurance policy, check whether it would help with your payments.

Tell us if you move to a new address

You may want to talk to a professional adviser, such as a debt counsellor or a lawyer, before you change your mortgage arrangements. We strongly advise that you seek independent, free, debt advice, see "Other useful contacts" below.
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Broken_hearted

We did complain, all they did was send a massive letter saying tough it was all our fault for not contacting them. Despite us offering our phone bill as evidence of speaking to them regularly, they claim to have sent out numerous letters which we never recieved. We asked them to forward copies of these letters to the branch which never happened.
The letter stating the refund is supposed to have been sent out twice, never turned up. Looks like I am going to have to raise yet another complaint.

Tara100

Have a look at these links from The Council of Mortgage Lenders / Financial Onbudsman Service:


http://www.cml.org.uk/cml/consumers/guides/complaints

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

http://www.moneymadeclear.org.uk/pdfs/complaint.pdf


The second link above contains ready made complaint forms.
I'm quite sure the Woolwich / Barclays will take more notice if they see your complaint in an official vein, especially if the FOS step in to help you (FOS is a free service).


Financial Onbudsman Service:
key facts

• It’s our job to settle individual complaints between consumers and businesses providing financial services.
• We were set up by parliament to do this – as independent experts – and our service is free to consumers.
• We can look at complaints about a wide range of financial matters – from insurance and mortgages to investments and credit. Each year we deal with almost a million enquiries and settle over 150,000 disputes.
• We’re completely independent and impartial. This means that when we decide a complaint, we look carefully at both sides of the story and weigh up all the facts.
• If we decide a business has treated the consumer fairly, we will explain why. But if we decide the business has acted wrongly – and the consumer has lost out as a result – we can order matters to be put right.
• We can resolve many disputes informally and we settle a third of cases within three months. But some cases are more complex and take more time. We aim to settle most disputes within six to nine months.
• Consumers don’t have to accept any decision we make. They are always free to go to court instead. But if they do accept an ombudsman's decision, it is binding both on them and on the business.
• We don't write the rules for businesses – or fine them if rules are broken. That is the job of the regulator.

Go for it; there's nothing to lose
Good luck!
Tara

janeminder

I have just received 2 weeks notification from DWP that the help with mortgage interest they currently give me while on Employment Support Allowance will be reduced from £152 per week to £90.75 per week, as a result of their interest rate being cut from 6.08% to 3.67% from the 28th Sept 2010.

I have always worked as a carer before I became ill. The in surance I had, only lasted 1 year. I am still ill and now disabled and in receipt of Employment Support Allowance and DLA, currently studying at University as a Counsellor part time and I am a single parent of two children age 13. I am stuck in a five year fixed term mortgage contract which I entered into before I became ill in 2008, which is currently £700 per month rising to £800 in July 2011, ending in 2013. The penalty to get out of this contract is £5,631. The DWP have been paying £152 per week toward my mortgage interest and I have been paying £91 per month to make it up to the required amount. This cut has resulted in a dramatic shortfall of £336 which I cannot find! And I am stuck in a poverty trap.I have contacted my Building Society the Halifax, who said my options were:
My mortgage is a ‘part and part’ mainly interest only mortgage and the only help they could offer was to reduce my payment by £20 per month. I could swap the mortgage I am on for another and a different rate, but I would have to pay penalties of £5,631.00 upfront and an arrangement fee of £999.00. No other help was available as I had already had a mortgage break when I first became ill. They also used index linked valuation of £169,000 so I cannot borrow on my equity as I would need to have 25% equity in my home for the 3% tracker, which would be ideal. They said to do this it would be at a charge of £200 for a valuation and this was no guarantee. Fees would still apply . My house has been up for sale for 1 year, with little interest and I have since dropped the price by £15,000.

This cut is going to affect many vulnerable people on benefits all with mortgages, resulting in repossessions and homelessness. My fear and reality is we could loose our home as soon as Christmas as there is no way I can find the shortfall in payments. We have lived in our home 15 years and have done a lot of work and spent a lot of money over the years on our home.
If I do sell then I probably won’t get another mortgage as they have tightened up on lending. I will have to rent or go into a static caravan if there is enough profit. The ideal situation would be for The Mortgage Rescue Scheme to buy my house and rent it back to me to lessen the stress of moving and enable us to keep our home, but my house is valued above what they will allow in this area. But the government are apparently axing that soon too! The Halifax could change my product to an affordable amount, but they wont without charges.

If im going down, im not going down quietly. Im hopefully appearing on TV and in the news papers. People affected need to fight and make some noise otherwise the government will get away with this and we will all loose our homes!

I feel so ill with all this. Its hard trying to keep well with this extra pressure on top of the usual pressures being on benefit. At least I am making an effort to secure future work by re-training into something I will manage now im disabled.

At least when Thatcher did this she did it for new claims not to people all ready trapped by circumstances.

As quoted by Chris Greyling ‘Helping people escape severe hardship was a ‘key challenge; not to leave the most vulnerable people behind.’" And cut mortgage interest support to ensure its better targeted.

Rubbish! :mad: