DWP scheme could provide £7,320 a year to help with housing costs – who is eligible | Personal Finance | Finance

Thousands of Brits could benefit from cash of around £7,320 or more to help with housing costs as part of a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) scheme. Certain households could qualify for what is known as Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI).

This scheme is there to help people pay the interest on up to £200,000 of their mortgage, or loans they’ve taken out to pay for work to the house.

Under current interest rates this could equal around £7,320 a year, or £610 a month.

However, you need to meet specific criteria to be eligible for the money, which is a loan and will need to be paid back eventually.

The Government website explains: “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. This help is called Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI).

“It’s paid as a loan, which you’ll need to repay with interest when you sell or transfer ownership of your home (unless you’re moving the loan to another property). You need to be getting a qualifying benefit to get SMI.”

The interest rate used to calculate the amount of SMI you’ll get is currently 3.66 percent.

At the current SMI interest rate, you could get a loan of 3.66 percent of £200,000 across a year. This is £7,320 a year or £610 a month.

Who is eligible?

To be eligible for an SMI loan, you need to be getting one of the following qualifying benefits:

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• Universal Credit
• Pension Credit.

“Contact the relevant office to check if you’re eligible for SMI,” the Government website adds. “There’s no credit check.”

You can start getting the loan:

• From the date you start getting Pension Credit
• After you’ve claimed Income Support, income-based JSA or income-based ESA for 39 weeks in a row
• After you’ve got Universal Credit for three months in a row or you moved to Universal Credit within a month of another benefit ending and you’ve spent three months in total getting these benefits.

How to apply

When you apply for a qualifying benefit, you’ll be asked extra questions about your housing costs to find out if you’re eligible for SMI.

If you then want to apply for SMI, you’ll need to fill in and sign in a form. You do not need to pay a fee to apply. To find out more, visit gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest/how-to-apply.

It is important to remember that SMI is a loan and will need to be paid back. “You’ll need to repay your SMI loan with interest if you sell or transfer ownership of your home,” the Government says.

“The interest you pay can go up or down, but the rate will not change more than twice a year. The current rate is 3.9 percent. You’ll be told if this is going to change.

“Interest will be added every year until the loan is completely repaid or written off.”