some help please re benifits

matty199

hi
my wife and i both self employed looks like we might have to go unemployed(work has just dried up and no income hardly at all)

my question is re benifits

we have a 200 k mortgage which was repayment 9 months ago i changed half of the mortage to interest only and the halifax allowed me to do that as i had a isa worth 100k#
the question is would you say this is linked to my mortgage and therefore not savings like a endowment of kind
just like and endowment both could be sold at any time anyway
and i know they allow endowments for mortgages are not classed as savings

if so i would be eligable for benifits

any advise appreciated

karenx

If its in a savings account which you have acess to at any time then yes its counted for benefits. And with 100k you will not get benefits at all and quite rightly so. Most people could only dream of having that sort of money available to them

matty199

thanks for your responce
however endowments polices linked to a mortgage are not counted as savings and you have full access to cash them in and sell them at any time too
so the isa which the mortage company only agreed to convert 100k of mortgage because i have one
therefore is it not linked
both can be sold at ANY time both have full access

Mikazaru

How is it linked?

I found this, but it is from Scotland and mught just be referring to ISMI payments...

Investments

Endowment policies linked to a mortgage will not be counted as capital however an investment such as an Individual Savings Account or ISA, which is not linked to a mortgage, will be treated as capital.

matty199

but you can have a isa linked mortgage
and as the mortgage company only converted 100k of the mortgage because of this i assume its linked?

sleepless_saver

Bit off topic, sorry, but have you checked if you can get working tax credit to top your income up meantime?

dmg24

matty199 wrote: »

but you can have a isa linked mortgage
and as the mortgage company only converted 100k of the mortgage because of this i assume its linked?

Is it an offset mortgage? An ISA can be disregarded if it can be shown that it is linked to a mortgage.

matty199

just how do you show its linked#

advise appreciated

Mikazaru

Do you not have any paperwork from when you changed the mortgage?
Or did they just change it to interest only because of the amount of money you have in savings and it isn't really an ISA linked mortgage?

dmg24

matty199 wrote: »

just how do you show its linked#

advise appreciated

Unless it is formally documented as such, you would need to build up sufficient evidence to prove the link. For instance, if the ISA was opened at the same time as the mortgage, and each month you have paid in the amount that your key facts illustration said you needed to pay off your mortgage, this would be a good indicator.

dmg24

Mikazaru wrote: »

Do you not have any paperwork from when you changed the mortgage?
Or did they just change it to interest only because of the amount of money you have in savings and it isn't really an ISA linked mortgage?

Really good point - I missed the fact that it was previously a repayment mortgage. In that case, I think they will struggle to prove that the ISA was linked.