Mortgage interest payments

likeyourhelp

Both my partner and myself were made redundant at the end of February, he managed to find part time work 16hrs a week and we have been claiming JSA, we also get help with council tax and tax credits.

We made a claim for interest payments on the mortgage and we have been awarded these, however they take the payments off my JSA and pay direct to the Mortgage company so I only get 20p per fortnight in JSA.

Can anyone help as I thought mortgage help was on top of benefits, we have also been told that we cannot stop this now it is in place. Although it helps we get about £290 paid to the mortgage company each 4 weekly period, we are on interest only mortgage and it is £680 per month, we have spoken with the mortgage company and they are being understanding at the moment but my question is how can they take it off my benefit? I could do this myself!!!!, is this correct?

I really appreciate it if you could help, I have never claimed for anything before and am desperately seeking work so please be kind XX:)

Muttleythefrog

It's a badly worded award letter that many pick up on. They add the Support for Mortgage Interest to your JSA then deduct it and send it to lender. The letter makes it look like you're paying the SMI out of your own benefits... but that isn't the case.

However, if the amount of JSA has suddenly dropped then that might be explained by change of JSA from Contrib based to income based. I understand that they'll award whichever is better for you overall... i.e. JSA plus SMI (and it sounds like you've just become eligible for SMI after qualifying period?). So if your JSA has gone right down, ask them to explain why... I guess it will be contrib to income based JSA.