Support for mortgage interest (SMI) provides help to people on benefits with part of the cost of paying a mortgage. Most homeowners whose household finances have been affected by Coronavirus have taken mortgage payment breaks. This has avoided problems with mortgage arrears and people haven't had to think about how they could get help with their mortgage costs. But mortgage payment breaks … [Read more...]
Articles about Support for Morgage Interest (SMI)
SMI helps people who aren't working with some of the cost of their mortgage. In 2018 it was changed from a benefit that did not have to be repaid, to being a loan.
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) is now a loan – should you agree to this?
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) helps people with the cost of their mortgage if they aren't working. It has been paid as a benefit since 1948, but in April 2018 this changed and now it is only given as a loan that is secured on your house. Here is the DWP leaflet describing the new loan: DWP SMI Factsheet (6 April). There are about 100,000 people eligible for SMI in 2018: about half … [Read more...]
SMI watch – 24 April – slow progress & statistics problems
On 24 April the DWP published the latest statistics on the switch from paying Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) as a benefit to giving it as a secured loan giving numbers as at 18 April: how many people getting SMI have been sent letters and successfully contacted by phone; what the people who have been successfully contacted are choosing to do - take the loan, decline the loan or are … [Read more...]
SMI – what happens if you haven’t agreed to take the loan?
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) used to be paid as a benefit to people who weren't working - this ended on 5 April 2018. From 6 April someone newly applying can only get help with their mortgage costs through a secured loan instead. This is sometimes referred to as Loan for Mortgage Interest (LMI), but the old name SMI is also used. If you have been getting SMI before April, there are now … [Read more...]
SMI watch – 25 March – no real progress in last week
On 23 March the DWP published the statistics as at 21 March on the switch from paying Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) as a benefit to giving it as a secured loan showing: how many people getting SMI have been contacted by letter and phone ; what the people who have been successfully contacted are choosing to do - take the loan, decline the loan or are currently undecided. UPDATE: … [Read more...]
DWP minister says SMI loan ‘can be backdated’
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) is changing on 6 April 2018 from being paid as a welfare benefit to being given as a secured loan. Kit Malthouse, a DWP Minister, told Radio 4's Moneybox on 17 March that he was "relatively confident we will be in a good position when it [6 April] comes." He stated that people who did not apply for the new loan by then will be able to have it … [Read more...]
DWP chaos? Only 10,000 have agreed to new SMI loan
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)'s Economic and Fiscal Outlook paper, published today with the Chancellor's Spring Statement, has this statement: DWP has told us that all current claimants have been contacted about the intention to convert their [Support for Mortgage Interest] award into a loan and of those that have responded, over half have indicated they are not interested while less … [Read more...]