Mortgage investments and means-tested benefits

Voyager2002

Does anyone know: if you claim a means-tested benefit like income-based JSA, and you are buying a house with an interest-only mortgage and linked investments to pay off the amount borrowed, do they take account of the investments linked to the mortgage when they are calculating whether you have too much capital to receive benefit?

Hope this is clear.

laura0141

Hello

I have an endowment mortgage and have claimed means-tested benefits (Income Support). To the best of my knowledge the endowment policy was not counted as 'savings'.

Hope that helps.

Laura0141

LondonDiva

I didn't think it was possible to get a mortgage without an income

laura0141

But it is perfectly possible to get a mortgage and then lose your source of income

In my case, I was working when I got the mortgage and then became ill. When my employer stopped paying my salary I went onto Incapacity Benefit and then Income Support. My employer eventually retired me (they were lovely - kept my job open for four years!) so I now have my pension and some Incapacity Benefit to top it up to the amount the govt. says I need to live on. And I still have my endowment mortgage.

Laura

Voyager2002

Thanks for that, #1. But in this case the mortgage-linked investments are cash ISAs: will they be treated differently?

camper

If as cash ISA's you could cash them in, then yes they will be treated as savings.
Sorry