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Support for mortgage interest
Weebles1703
Member Posts: 12 Connected
I'm going to be affected by the new rules about support for mortgage interest. I'm 44 and have been too sick to work since I was 32. The dwp have paid varying amounts towards my mortgage interest over the years. It's dwindled to £55 a month. One of my kids still lives at home. The home has lots of sentimental value attatched as my youngest son was born here and he died 5 years ago. His room is virtually untouched. For this reason I don't want to move house. My dilemma is do I swap the £55 a month for a loan and put that huge amount of stress on my son to sell the property when I die (I come close to that on a regular basis with sepsis and respiratory failure)? Or do I put us in financial hardship now? - paying the rest of the mortgage from esa and Pip is tough enough already. I understand that for the temporarily sick, this might be a fair-ish reform, but for people who will never work or pensioners, this seems barbaric. If I didn't have this house, the local authority would no doubt be paying £500 a week for an accessible property. I've had my advisory phone call from Serco already but they couldn't answer many of my questions, like how long would my son have to pay back the loan. Any advice would be warmly welcomed.
Replies
You may like to take a look at a thread I started about the same subject last December, I have put a link below but I'm a bit rubbish at doing stuff like that so soz if it does not work.
I received a reminder letter from Serco on Monday prompting me to take some action. I have decided to do nothing at the moment in the hope that someone in our elected government will eventually wake up and see how ridiculous this scheme is.
(SMI) Support for Mortgage Interest ending
Read more at https://community.scope.org.uk/discussion/38559/smi-support-for-mortgage-interest-ending#oYDF1ltDmfs8rGQB.99
I strongly recommend that you contact your MP about this. Your point that this isn't fair on long-term disabled people and long-term carers and pensioners is absolutely spot on. You can email your MP - it's very easy.
I am afraid that, as far as I can see, the loan and the interest must be repaid immediately following the death of the claimant. This is expected to be met from your estate, so you are completely right about the pressure on your son to sell in the event of your death. The only thing which might help is that you can make voluntary repayments before you die (but I realise that wouldn't be easy at all).
newtwife, just to say, in the case of couples making joint claims, the loan doesn't become payable until you both die.
I'm sorry to be so upfront about all this. It's awful!
Will