UK households urged to come forward and claim £7,300 in mortgage relief
Homeowners have been urged to come forward and claim an eye-watering £7,300 in mortgage relief. Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) is a UK government loan that can pay the interest part of your mortgage if you have to start claiming benefits.
If you’re a homeowner or have bought a shared ownership property, you might be able to get help towards interest payments on your mortgage or loans you’ve taken out for certain repairs and improvements to your home, the Department for Work and Pensions says.
"It’s paid as a loan, which you’ll need to repay with interest when you sell or transfer ownership of your home. You may be able to transfer the loan if you’re buying a new home," the DWP adds. "You need to be getting a qualifying benefit to get SMI.
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"There’s no guarantee that you’ll get SMI for a mortgage or loan you take out." SMI cannot help you pay anything towards insurance policies you have or missed mortgage payments (arrears) and you could speak to your mortgage lender before you apply for SMI.
Some lenders can offer other ways to help, such as temporary payment holidays, interest-only payments or extending your mortgage term to reduce monthly payments. Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) usually helps pay the interest on up to £200,000 of your loan or mortgage.
However, you can only get up to £100,000 if either you’re getting Pension Credit, or you started claiming another qualifying benefit before January 2009 and you were below State Pension age at that time. If you’re already getting SMI and move to Pension Credit within 12 weeks of stopping your other benefits, you’ll still get help with interest on up to £200,000.
The interest rate used to calculate the amount of SMI you’ll get is currently 3.66 per cent.