(SMI) Support for Mortgage Interest ending

Debbie_Alumni

Hi @sandraM,

From Shelter's website. 

Housing benefit if you own a mobile home

If you own your mobile home, you can get housing benefit to help pay your pitch or site fees but not if fees are paid under a long lease.

Housing benefit won't cover hire purchase fees for buying your home.

I couldn't find a Universal Credit equivalent in as simple a form as above but, yes you can get help with site fees under Universal Credit too. I needed to check just to make sure. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/661563/admf2.pdf 

It's a lot of options to explore in quite a short space of time. 

Please email me at the helpline if you need to talk through some of the options.

Best wishes all

Debbie

sandraM

Thanks Debbie just as I thought. Its absolutely crazy when the system will now in some cases be paying out more than the mortgage interest. It beggars beyond belief actually.

BenefitsTrainingCo

clmelia1, Debbie_Scope,

Thanks Debbie for answering Sandra's question.

Just going back to the loan for SMI. Unfortunately, if the only bit of Income Support you get is mortgage interest, then whether you refuse the loan or not you will not longer be getting Income Support.

As previously explained, if you get Income Support paid directly to you (not just the bit to your lender), then you will still get that and that means you'll carry on getting free school meals, full child tax credit, and the same amount of council tax support.

The principle is the same for universal credit and income-based ESA - as long as you get some benefit which is paid to you, that will continue, and will continue to passport you to the other help you get with it.

Will

clmelia1

Thank you 

I got a letter on Friday with some information but I didn't really understand it.

If I decide not to accept the loan do I need to tell income support?

Also the leaflet said something about a second charge being put on my property.  What does that mean?

Thanks 
Clmelia1

Debbie_Alumni

Hi @clmelia1,

I would hope that if you didn't accept the loan that the information would be cascaded to Income Support. If that doesn't look like it will happen it would be best to call them and let them know.

Charges on a property are used to secure a debt using your home as your security. A second charge mortgage works like your first mortgage, your home is at risk if you don’t keep up the payments. If you sell your home, the first charge mortgage gets cleared in full before any money goes towards paying off the second charge. Please see more about Second Charge or Second Mortgages from the Money Advice Service

Although in the SMI cases there aren't any payments to be made until the property is sold, or you go back to work. Additionally if there is no equity in the property when you sell; the DWP will write off the debt.

Please keep your posts coming everyone and share with with people you know who might be affected by these changes. It seems that there really isn't much information available but we can find this together and share with each other. 

If anyone needs specific advice please get in touch with the helpline. We can only give general answers on the community and information will vary for every individual situation. If we can't answer we will try to find you local or national advice.

Best wishes
Debbie

sandraM

I have now had to put my house up for sale. Godness knows how I am supposed to try packing my belongings.  Fees are already near £4000 to buy/sell pay estate agents and solicitors. 
All the worry is causing so much despair and I believe you only get 6 months from selling toby somewhere else or you lose your benefit.  Can you confirm this please.

Debbie_Alumni

Hi @sandraM,

I'm really sorry that you feel there's no other option than to sell. You're not the first person I've spoken to who is looking at selling up as an option. There's no easy answers but I continue to work on this behind the scenes and I'm reaching out to various organisations, individuals and basically anyone who will listen. 

You can have the proceeds of the sale of your home disregarded for 26 weeks and I believe this can be extended depending on your circumstances. You would need to get advice specific to your circumstances just to check this over though. That's easier said than done I know so if you get stuck please do get in touch with me at the helpline.

Best wishes
Debbie
 

nanof6

i also are selling up  because of this 
my mortgage is £12 odd a week i'm,  living on PIP and old age  pention and pention creddit   what i can't understand if i was in a council property the DWP would of been paying a lot more,i have herd that people will only get £50 towards their rent from april

sleepy1

Well having got my PIP appeal sent off today I managed to pluck up some extra courage to open one of the big fat twin brown envelopes that Serco/DWP have sent me about the "Loan Contract".

Only around 60 pages in all to read........and looks like it will be more than 60 shades of brown.
  
To start page 1 states "If you want to accept the loan you need to sign and return one copy of the loan agreement and charge within 6 weeks of the date of this letter".  There is no date anywhere on the letter or the envelope.......unless it is written in code somewhere!  Managed somehow to get to pages 3/4 then had to give up before my head exploded.

Sandra and Nano, I agree this is just crazy and can so understand all the stress you are going through, it beggars belief why they would want to do this???

Debbie, thanks for all your help and keeping a close eye on this yet to hit the fan situation.  I'm baffled why there has not been any media coverage (unless I missed it)?

Sending my love to you all X rosie

sandraM

The expenses I'm having to pay is now eating into my funds to allow me to buy something and limiting my choices..£4k is a lot of money.  Looking like it will be a tent at this rate, or I'm thinking a camper van but nowhere to put it. 
Hugs to you all and thanks to the admin here, you are all fab.

Geoark

Hi @nanof6 thanks for posting about the changes in housing benefit from April 2018, as this was the first I heard of it.

The change affects any new tenancies from 1st April 2016 or renewed an existing tenancy since then. The change will be that benefits will only cover the local housing allowance, with tenants having to make up any shortfall. This will be for council and housing association tenants as it already applies to private rented accommodation.

No idea how many people this will affect - @Debbie_Scope do you have any additional information? 

sleepy1

Sandra lol

A Tent, yeah was thinking down similar lines, could call it DWaPing : )  Wonder if they would pay the ground rent?  And agree to home visits?  Even in a camper van the HCP would no doubt say we walked more than 50 meter's unaided from the bedroom to the kitchen.

Maybe it would be easier if they just rounded us all up and put us in a fenced off area in the middle of nowhere patrolled 24 hours by Serco, Atos and Capita. Just think of the money that could save!

I cant even bare to look at that 60 page contract again atm, the whole thing stinks and I'm hoping someone with even half a brain will see sense and put it in room 101 along with all the fools that had anything to do with it.

Mustn't grumble tho eh........Have a pain free day all X

Debbie_Alumni

Hi everyone,

Thanks for keeping us updated with how things are progressing.

@sleepy1, I'd really like to see a copy of the loan agreement. I will message you and see if we can arrange this, if you're willing. 60 pages is an awful lot to read through. You've just sent your PIP appeal off and now have to face this. How are you coping? There's very little media coverage at the moment but I'm sure it will happen as more and more people come forward. 

@Geoark @nanof6- There were proposals to bring in the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates to social housing this year but in October 2017, the government announced they would not be applying these rates. It wasn't a good  idea to start with and it came as a relief when the plans were scrapped.
https://www.housing.org.uk/topics/welfare-reform/local-housing-allowance-in-general-needs-social-housing/ 

There's some interesting ideas about tents, camper vans and so on. I admire everyone's humour and strength. It's not easy dealing with all of this anyway but when you're struggling with health and disability it's so much harder.

Best wishes
Debbie

nanof6

yes after the forms some one from serco or can't rember phone you 2 weeks later to see if you understand the forms and tells you about the loean its , well mine was £65. interest first yeat  over £200 the second year but you dont have to pay it till you sell, i said no i dont want a loen the tories can't be trusted, look what they done to the student loans.up up up they can change their minds once you get sucked in, and once you have signed your house to them who can tell what they will do.don't trust them

sandraM

I wouldn't trust them either. The interest will go up and up.  Pity we couldn't buy some land that we could put a static or two on or camper van. The latter I'm swaying towards but don't know if I would still be entitled to benefits if I blew my sale of house money on.

elainewillis

Yeh! SandraM lets have a commune, instead of Hippies we could be Dippies or something along those lines. We could all help each other out and all chip in towards things like a gardener to help us grow our own veg etc, a cleaner , a handyman etc etc. We can cut down on car costs by car sharing.  The more I think about it, the better an idea it sounds

sandraM

That sounds a fab idea @elainewillis  There is a static caravan site at Stepps in Glasgow but they cost near enough £100k plus £100 a month in ground fees.

I'm sure we could better that.  20k for a good enough static, and a piece of land between us....Oh isn't it good to dream.  

Ive got to keep thinking positive or this pressure will crack me.  Im in so much pain and been trying to pack some stuff today. All I can says I'm glad I'm starting early.

sleepy1

Hi nanof6,

Serco did ring me to discuss the loan, the phone rang for about 2 seconds so was unable to take the call because by the time I got to the phone it had stopped.  Considering they are dealing with disabled people that is not fair in my opinion, but I suppose that would be their obligation fulfilled.  I waited a day or so for them to call back and when they didn'nt I called them, the first thing they wanted to know was had I read the letter and booklet and fully understood the implications and would I like to proceed with the loan.

I told them that I had read it but certainly did not understand it and felt my options were very much limited anyway, asked them loads of questions which I got very vauge answers to as most of them were probably off script.  So they sent me the loan agreement to read and consider.

I kid you not even a high court judge would probably struggle to fathom it, let alone little old fuzzy head me.

What next I wonder?

sandraM

@sleepy1 I entirely agree with you. When Serco called me I asked them a few Qs which they couldn't answer then asked if there was anything else I wanted to know to help me make my decision. I replied it was pointless asking them since they didn't have any answers for me so said goodbye. Waste of time talking to them in my opinion.

elainewillis

@sandraM
I thought perhaps we could do a bit better than a caravan, which would be a bit too cold for me!  Perhaps buy an old retirement home or other large building and convert it. I don’t know how much people would have after selling their houses but say it’s 50k and multiply that by 10 people we’d have half a million to spend!  I visited a commune in Devon. It was in a beautiful old hall with outbuildings converted. If you buy there you have to undergo a 6 month assessment before your allowed. It was a bit too hippy for me though!