Income support Him 65yrs, her 58yrs

M635

Hi,

Just wondered if anyone knows the answer.

My dad is 65yrs old and gets state pension which is around £200 a week, and help with council tax and mortgage payments (Mortgage £20k)

My mum is 58yrs old, and currently does not claim any kind of benefit personally and they solely reply on the above.
She was a stay at home mum for about 20/25yrs raising three children doing part time work, and then worked probably 20/30hrs a week for 12/15 years as a carer so has not paid full tax contributions for the required 30 years.

She does not work any more as working as a carer is no longer viable lifting/bathing people etc.

My parents are proud people and will not ask for help, but they are struggling with living on £200 a week, so I wondered if there are any benefits my mum can claim on top of my dads pension or would it just be job seekers ?

Is she able any sort of income support ?

Thanks

Oldernotwiser

It sounds to me as if your parents are already receiving Pension Credit for a couple which is all they would be eligible to claim. £200 per week net without any housing costs is really quite a reasonable amount to live on - far more than an unemployed couple would receive.

M635

Thanks, I thought that was the case but wanted to check.

Cheers

Jowo_2

You can double check their entitlements on the turn2us online benefit calculator.

How are they proposing to pay off the remaining 20k mortgage and when does the mortgage term expire? Help with mortgage payments only extends to the interest part of the loan, not repayment of the capital. Therefore it is merely treading water at the moment.

Has your mother considered finding employment that doesn't involve heavy work or is she too sick to work in any capacity?

Oldernotwiser

Jowo wrote: »

How are they proposing to pay off the remaining 20k mortgage and when does the mortgage term expire? Help with mortgage payments only extends to the interest part of the loan, not repayment of the capital. Therefore it is merely treading water at the moment.

As people can claim mortgage interest until they die, there really isn't any reason to worry about paying off the capital, unless the lender is insisting on this for some reason.

Jowo_2

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

As people can claim mortgage interest until they die, there really isn't any reason to worry about paying off the capital, unless the lender is insisting on this for some reason.

The background to my enquiry is a post on the Housing forum from someone whose elderly parents had no income and whose lender refused to extend the mortgage term, forcing them to race against time to sell it before it was repossessed. Are they going to be in a position to re-mortgage and will a lender be happy for the capital never to be paid down in the next 20 or 30 years? What if a govt caps these schemes in the future.

The outstanding balance has to be addressed.

sueturnersmith

When your mother reaches 60 years old she will be able to claim some state retirement pension for the time she was a stay at home mum with children under the age of 16. Make sure they claim this!

I was the same, and shortly before I was 60 DWP told me I was entitled to a pension of 65p a week! I found out about my entitlement as a stay at home mum earlier this year, and asked DWP about this. They realised they had made an error, and I got a back payment of over £6K net, and now get £53 a week!

dreamylittledream

Jowo wrote: »

The background to my enquiry is a post on the Housing forum from someone whose elderly parents had no income and whose lender refused to extend the mortgage term, forcing them to race against time to sell it before it was repossessed. Are they going to be in a position to re-mortgage and will a lender be happy for the capital never to be paid down in the next 20 or 30 years? What if a govt caps these schemes in the future.

The outstanding balance has to be addressed.

Whilst it would be within the rights of the lender to do so it would be very unusal for an interest only mortgage term not to be extended indefinetly whilst income or mortgage interest relief existed to serve the debt.

Interest only mortgage are often used as a form of equity release with the understanding that the capital will be repaid on sale and providing affordability remained there's little reason why this wouldn't remain an ongoing arrangement.

If affordability disappeared (for example if the government scheme ended) then the lender would be taking action to repossess due to none payment rather than term running out. Few lenders would be unhappy with an ongoing interest only arrangement providing affordability existed - it's actually a more profitable arrangement to them than a loan being on capital and interest after all.

Mojisola

sueturnersmith wrote: »

When your mother reaches 60 years old she will be able to claim some state retirement pension for the time she was a stay at home mum with children under the age of 16. Make sure they claim this!

Won't any pension she's entitled to just reduce the Pension Credit so the total will stay the same?

Oldernotwiser

Jowo wrote: »

The background to my enquiry is a post on the Housing forum from someone whose elderly parents had no income and whose lender refused to extend the mortgage term, forcing them to race against time to sell it before it was repossessed. Are they going to be in a position to re-mortgage and will a lender be happy for the capital never to be paid down in the next 20 or 30 years? What if a govt caps these schemes in the future.

The outstanding balance has to be addressed.

I suppose it depends, My parents had an interest only mortgage (based on pension income) which had to be repaid when the property was sold after their deaths.

I take your point that the government might stop paying this interest but I can't see any reason why a lender should have a problem with it, as long as they're receiving their money regularly.