UC and Mortgage payments

You can't claim for help with your mortgage through UC, your friend claims for help with their rent, that's different.

Any help with your mortgage would be for the interest payments only and this is just a loan, which needs to be repaid back if you sell your home in the future. It's call Support For Mortgage Interest. (SMI) See link.

You also need to be entitled to payments of UC for 3 months in row before payments start. Details in link.

https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest/what-youll-get

This would be paid straight to your lender.

As you have a mortgage then no housing allowance is available to you, that is only for people who rent.

Applying for SMI is optional. If you are not interested then you simply don't apply or fill in the extra form (as detailed in the link).

No, you will not need to do that. As I advised you will not be able to claim housing costs for help with the mortgage.

If you’re a single person then your maximum UC entitlement will be £393.45/month.

Your entitlement to UC is not based on the bills you have to pay such as energy, mortgage, water, phone etc etc.

If your ID can't be verified online you will need to take it with you to your first appointment. See link.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-verify-your-identity-for-universal-credit

If you have capital of more than £6,000 you'll likely need to take bank statements with you.

All the money you have, regardless of where it is, unless it's in a Pension pot, as well as any other capital you have will all count towards the capital limit.

If it's less than £6,000 you will not need to provide bank statements. If it's more than yes you maybe asked to provide them. They will not check bank accounts directly, at least not for this reason.

Hi,

A tax rebate usually counts as income during the assessment period in which it's paid, and then becomes capital at the end of the next assessment period.

Depending on your circumstances, you may have a work allowance of £673 for each period. Any extra income above that creates a 55% deduction from your UC. So for example, if you got £873 tax rebate, only £200 of that would be above your work allowance. 55% of £200 is £110. So your UC payment for that month would be reduced by £110.

If you don't use the money by the end of the next assessment period, and it puts you above £6000 in total, then you would have to update your capital online through the journal at that point. There would be a deduction of £4.35 per month for every £250 you have above £6000.

Regarding starting the UC claim while waiting, I would recommend that you do start the claim as soon as possible and then deal with the tax rebate in the future.