Shared ownership income calculation

jollyfred

Hi there, I wonder if anyone has info/website links for how the criterion of max. income of £80k pa (outside London) is calculated for shared ownership properties. I'm aware that it's not just gross salary but involves an equation that assumes you earn £xx pa for each £ of savings, and that you can deduct value of current property being sold and also personal pensions funds. I've searched on-line for more details but not found anything. Any help much appreciated. Thanks, Fred.

ChloeManoey

To be honest I thought it was purely looking at your annual salary, I'm not aware they take into account any of those things you mention. 

If you're worried about being over the 80k threshold (I assume that's why you're asking) then why on earth would you be looking at shared ownership anyway? 

I personally think the 80k should be wayyyyyyy lower so that the scheme prioritises those who actually need it. 

nick_mac

Not sure what the question is. The £80k income threshold is simply annual income (incl. bonus); it's the income that you actually receive, so it excludes pension contributions for instance. So, if you have a salary of £90k but contributed £15k per annum to your pension, then you should still be eligible for Shared Ownership.

ChloeManoey

It's gross income so I'm not sure pension contributions are relevant, just as tax and national insurance aren't. Or that would be your net pay. 

jollyfred

Coming back to this late as the alerts were turned off   

I should have specified this was about retirement shared ownership, where the aim is more about freeing capital from an existing property to pay for health care. And it's not as simple as £80k being straight gross income. Homes England give guidance to housing associations, but it's quite flexible for retirement buildings, and the housing associations can use their own calculation methods, as long as they can justify this to Homes England.

In one example of this, an on-line calculator is used that applies a nominal interest rate (c. 25% last time I looked) to savings as part of the income calculation.

It's quite a complex area and one that, I think, could do with some simplification.