Income support & housing benefit - Help please

ManxAvenger

Equalities act - looong story. Just found out no SMI rate either, each housing benefit assessed individually.

Jowo_2

Cost of living and personal circumstances, like debts, do not have any bearing on the amount of benefits received. The £12 a week decrease in benefits and impact of inflation has to be met by you reducing your expenses if you can't up your income.

It won't hurt you to double check your benefit entitlements on the Turn2us online benefit calculator.

Download the budget planner from the MSE website, complete it and then work through the site to find ways to increase your income and decrease your expenses. Across the site and the forums is good advice on how to be ultra frugal, find cheaper groceries, cook cheaper meals, cheaper tariffs and suppliers.

See the Shelter website for info on how to prevent arrears on your mortgage, how to prevent repossession - they have a section for struggling homeowners which outline various options.

ManxAvenger

So the decrease is to do with the SMI change last year?

ManxAvenger

Unfortunately, cheaper groceries and utility tariffs are unavailable to us, as we have no competition by suppliers. Our Tesco is more expensive and only one electricity supplier. Thank god we have oil and not gas!

Benefits are spot on, as I have already checked. System and payment amounts are different here so had to do a bit of juggling with the form.

What I wanted to know was, would it be better to go on interest only mortgage repayments until that magical 'new job' day finally arrives?

Jowo_2

ManxAvenger wrote: »

What I wanted to know was, would it be better to go on interest only mortgage repayments until that magical 'new job' day finally arrives?

You should consult a neutral expert in this area, like Shelter, who can offer impartial advice on your options, such as selling the property or applying for the mortgage rescue scheme where a social housing landlord buys your property and gives you a secure tenancy.

Call their homeowner helpline.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repossession/homeowner_helpline

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/paying_for_a_home/mortgage_arrears

Switching to interest only means that you will merely tread water and if there are no realistic prospects of paying off the balance of the loan by the end of the term, and little chance of re-mortgaging because there is no employment income, this can lead to the risk of your property being repossessed. But you should really speak to Shelter to determine your best course of action.

How many years left on the mortgage term, how old are you and what do you owe? How long have you been on the SMI scheme? Is the property in joint names and does your partner receive JSA?

Ultimately people here don't know your full circumstances or the full options available and can't really provide guidance to you on such a complex area. Sure, use this thread as a sounding board but don't do anything drastic until you've had expert guidance.