DWP - Mortgage Interest

2springers

My husband and I are talking about seperating and I am looking into benefits, etc. I would like to stay in the house with our two young children and hubby is happy for me to do that however the mortgage is in his name only. I understand that the DWP will not cover the mortgage interest if the mortgage is in my husbands name, even if I am the person living there. My question is - would it make a difference if we remortgaged now and took out a joint mortgage before we seperate? Would the DWP then pay the interest on the mortgage after 6 months?

Alternatively would I be able to claim housing benefit if my husband changed the mortgage to buy-to-let and I rented the house from him?

We are both keen for me and the kids to stay here rather than go into rented accomodation and possibly have to move the children every 6 months.

If there is no other alternative and hubby continues to pay the mortgage while I live here, how will that affect any other benefits I might be entitled to?

Sorry there are so many questions but I'm finding this really confusing.

SuziQ

I'm afraid it's bad news anyway with mortgages. If your mortgage was taken out after 1995,then you get no help until you have been on beneft for 39 weeks. Then I believe you get 80% of the interest only-but if you have a joint mortgage you will only get 80% of the 50% of the monthly interest cost. Hope that makes sense. Seems unfair to me,as if you were renting you would get help with reasonable rent costs immediately.

I can't answer your btl query-I'm sure others will be along who can and to correct me if I'm wrong-although this is what I have been told.)

You have to be careful if he pays the mortgage. I was told that in our case,where we have a joint mortgage,only half the monthly mortgage costs would be discounted when calculating my IS and other benefits-if he pays all I have to declare and they will factor in my 'extra income' and my benefit may drop. Again if what I have been told is incorrect I would be interested to hear.
I'm not sure what happens in your case though,with him being the only name on the mortgage and, I presume, deeds?
Have you discussed maintenance with him? Again,this is a minefield,as if you claim benefit the CSA will stick their big noses in and he will pay them rather than you.

Oldernotwiser

SuziQ wrote: »

Have you discussed maintenance with him? Again,this is a minefield,as if you claim benefit the CSA will stick their big noses in and he will pay them rather than you.

You may not have intended this but you're getting very close to encouraging the OP to commit benefit fraud. If you receive maintenance without declaring it then you're getting money for the same thing (child support) from both the father and benefits. Be careful!

Conor_3

2springers wrote: »

My question is - would it make a difference if we remortgaged now and took out a joint mortgage before we seperate? Would the DWP then pay the interest on the mortgage after 6 months?

No because it is in joint names and he would be expected to pay your part if you can't.
The only way they'd pay it if it was solely in your name.

SuziQ

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You may not have intended this but you're getting very close to encouraging the OP to commit benefit fraud. If you receive maintenance without declaring it then you're getting money for the same thing (child support) from both the father and benefits. Be careful!

Absolutely not!

I am straight own the line with all my dealings with benefits and anyone else and really resent this- I am merely stating the facts here.

Where did I tell her to lie? I was merely asking whether they are aware that they MUST do all of this above board! Struth!

Oldernotwiser

SuziQ wrote: »

Absolutely not!

I am straight own the line with all my dealings with benefits and anyone else and really resent this- I am merely stating the facts here.

Where did I tell her to lie? I was merely asking whether they are aware that they MUST do all of this above board! Struth!

I quoted the relevant sentence in my last post, nothing to do with lying but to do with not paying maintenance through the CSA. I'm sure you didn't intend this (I said that as well) but that's not the way your post was worded! Perhaps you should read it again?

mitchaa

If you go down the renting off your ex route, your hubby needs to change to a BTL mortgage, become your landlord and he will be taxed on this income.

You also need to draw up commercial landlord/tenant contracts and even then it may not satisfy the need for HB/LHA.

Also you would only get 50% of the interest paid, so if you had a £1000pm mortgage for example and £800 of that was interest/£200 repayment, you would only receive £400 of that leaving an obvious £600 shortfall.

There's a 39 wait also.

Basically there are an awful lot of hurdles you need to jump over 1st, not impossible no, but difficult, yes.

dmg24

mitchaa wrote: »

If you go down the renting off your ex route, your hubby needs to change to a BTL mortgage, become your landlord and he will be taxed on this income.

You also need to draw up commercial landlord/tenant contracts and even then it may not satisfy the need for HB/LHA.

You cannot claim HB/ LHA on a property that you have owned within the past five years.

SuziQ

Have you discussed maintenance with him? Again,this is a minefield,as if you claim benefit the CSA will stick their big noses in and he will pay them rather than you.

My whole point was that they might be better off keeping off benefits totally,and him paying her maintenance on a voluntary basis-without the csa needing to get involved.As they are only testing the water as to the best route to take this was a perfectly honest thing for me to say surely?

I still cannot see where you deduced that I was encouraging her to be dishonest (I am the first one on here to complain about people 'diddling' the system) but perhaps you are reading everyones posts with much more jaundiced eyes than mine.

To be honest,if the original OP and her hubby are able to sit down and discuss this in such a civilised way I am not convinced they should be considering parting at all. Maybe they should be looking into counselling and any other way of saving the relationship-there is certainly no joy or dignity in being on benefits from my own experience.We are lucky to have the benefit as a stop gap-I'm certainly grateful for every penny I get whilst trying to get back into employment-but it certainly isn't enough to live on,especially when you have to find the money for a mortgage out of the allowance.

real1314

dmg24 wrote: »

You cannot claim HB/ LHA on a property that you have owned within the past five years.

And even more pertinently, you cannot claim HB for a property which you rent from the parent of any of your children.

I'm not convinced the IS mortgage interest advice that's been is accurate though, but inae in that area.

dmg24

real1314 wrote: »

And even more pertinently, you cannot claim HB for a property which you rent from the parent of any of your children.

I'm not convinced the IS mortgage interest advice that's been is accurate though, but inae in that area.

Good point, and I agree, some of the information is definitely incorrect (such as only 80% of the interest being paid).

A good point of reference on ISMI is here.

The point that I cannot find the answer to is what happens if the claimant is jointly named on a mortgage?