Mortgage Interest Supplement

pandamoanium

Hey all,

Not sure if the above is even the correct name for this payment but here goes..

A family member recently had to take leave from their job (They've been in the same job 25+ years, had to take sick leave around 10 months ago and haven't been back since)

At first they thought they'd be able to return to work after a few weeks however their doctor and hospital consultant have reccommended they quit altogether and take early retirement (the person in question is around 60)

Anyways since then they've been getting Illness Benefit.. I think that's it anyhow. They're thinking of claiming Disability Benefit if they definitely cannot return to work due to ill health.

Anyways, on talking to this person I was a bit horrified to learn that he's only getting 198 per week for himself, and I think it's like, 80 for his wife (She's incapacitated and can't work) so they're getting just like E300 a week and have a mortgage to pay.

I didn't want to pry too much but I think the mortgage is about E900 per month, and they're only getting about E1200 per month.

When I heard this I then advised him to enquire as to looking to see if he would be entitled to anything like a rental allowance to help with the mortgage. He rang up someone at welfare, and whatever they said really put him off, they said that the Mortage interest supplement is only a pittance, like a tenner a week - could this possibly be right?

I'm looking at this on the grounds that if someone on the dole can claim a rental allowance worth approx. 90% of their rent, surely a person on disability should be entitled to more than say, 1% for their mortgage??

Obviously I don't have the full figures, but surely the mortgage interest supplement would be more generous than a tenner a week or thereabouts? I know every case is different and means tested etc.. but for a couple getting E300 per week, this seems very poor if they're paying the equivalent of E225 on the mortgage alone to keep a roof over their heads.

Because of their age they can't remortgage to get a lower payment per month either, so they can't spread it out over any more years with a lower rate.

The person in question hates the idea of looking for "handouts" and isn't too keen to go ringing up about it and asking questions, he's no good on the phone and quite shy. It's making it all the more unattractive if it's only for a tenner a week, however If I had some evidence that he could be entitled to more I may be able to convince to seek it out if he is indeed entitled to it afterall.

There's lots of posts on here regarding rental allowance and their rates to be had, very little to be found on the mortgage interest supplement though. Can anyone shed any more light on this?

The only info I could find online is this:

"You will only get assistance with the interest portion of your mortgage repayments (i.e., not with the portion that pays off the actual loan) and house insurance. You should contact your lender to discuss repaying the actual loan."


Thanks all!

uoluol

I would imagine that they would have insurance cover for this event, most mortgage providers make this a requirement. Or they could switch to interest only repayments.

Failing this, they should contact their local Community Welfare Office, as it is the HSE, and not Social Welfare who administer the mortgage payment scheme.

pandamoanium

Thanks for that!

I never thought of the payment protection they'd be paying on their mortgage!

Not sure what exactly theirs would cover without knowing the precise plan and terms and conditions, sounds like it could definitely be an option though, I mean that's what you pay these things for, so that in unforseen circumstances and you can't work through illness they'll carry you through the tough times..

Thanks again!

I'll mention it to the person in question and get them to look into it.

delly

Payment protection isn't compulsory, its the life insurance that is.

Thoie

pandamoanium wrote: »

When I heard this I then advised him to enquire as to looking to see if he would be entitled to anything like a rental allowance to help with the mortgage. He rang up someone at welfare, and whatever they said really put him off, they said that the Mortage interest supplement is only a pittance, like a tenner a week - could this possibly be right?
[/quote]

Unfortunately, yes. If they're 60, the likelihood is that they're coming towards the end of their mortgage period (unless they remortgaged recently). The way mortgages work is that at the beginning of your term (when you first take it out), you're paying off more interest than capital. Towards the end of the loan, you're paying off more capital than interest. For the sake of argument (not real numbers!), if you're paying 1000 a month for 25 years, for the first few years that might be 800 interest, 200 capital. At year 23 you might be paying 200 interest, 800 capital.

The mortgage interest supplement only goes towards the interest portion. So, the longer you've been paying your loan, the smaller the mortgage interest supplement is. There are also various means tests, including the value of your savings, portions of any social welfare payments you're receiving, etc. You're also expected to pay something like 13-20 euro a week (or month?) of the interest yourself.

The scheme is run through the HSE, not the social welfare, so you'd need to give them a ring. There's more information here.

However if things are really that bad, you can talk to a Community Welfare Officer. There may be a number of other allowances they might be eligible for. For example if the wife is incapacitated, is the husband eligible for carer's allowance? AFAIK there are also hardship funds available, and a few other things.

The main thing is to be honest with the CWO - give him a copy of all bank account statements, outstanding loans, any income from pensions/social welfare etc.

You might also want to point out to your friend that these aren't handouts - he's been paying PRSI all his life. PRSI stands for Pay Related Social Insurance. If he'd been paying car insurance, and was in a crash, would he feel bad about claiming for his repairs from the insurance?