Support for mortgage interest — Scope | Disability forum
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Support for mortgage interest

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Weebles1703
Weebles1703 Community member Posts: 12 Courageous
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. 

Comments

  • sleepy1
    sleepy1 Community member Posts: 297 Pioneering
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    Hi Weebles, my heart goes out to you.

    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
  • newtwife
    newtwife Community member Posts: 5 Listener
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    Hi I am in the same position , am at my wits end feel like ending it all .. THEY stopped all my money.. now we got £700 a month to live on.. and will hae to pay £600 mortgage out of that .. lost my son last year.. trying to sell my cottage.. which I don't want to.. husband got heart failure due to chemotherapy.. I get £17 a week pension am desperate
  • Lasian_Alumni
    Lasian_Alumni Community member Posts: 659 Pioneering
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    I'm so sorry to hear about what you're going through @newtwife, please remember that you are a member of our community and we appreciate you.

    If you are having thoughts of suicide, it is important that you discuss them with someone who is qualified to help. Please call the Samaritans on 116 123 (free) or email them at jo@samaritans.org. You might also benefit from reading MIND’s information on how you can help yourself.

    If you feel that you may be an immediate danger to yourself, please call 999 or go to your local hospital right away.
  • jaycee6
    jaycee6 Community member Posts: 52 Courageous
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    Sorry to hear what you are all going through.Something is not right when the government can get away with doing this ,Yet our local council proudly announce they are cutting council rents again by 1 percent for the third year running.They seem to be against disabled for some reason,It makes me mad.Council always tell us there is no money for disabled because of cut backs,REALLY
  • BenefitsTrainingCo
    BenefitsTrainingCo Community member Posts: 2,621 Pioneering
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    Weebles1703Weebles1703,

    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!

    sleepy1sleepy1, I completely agree! Please can I urge everyone affected to contact their MPs. 

    Will
    The Benefits Training Co:

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