redundancy and mortgages

[shirt]

in a nutshell i am leaving my current role under a voluntary redundancy agreement and have no payment protection on my mortgage.

i was told in a 'counselling' session that if i switch to an interest free mortgage then the government has a scheme whereby they will pay my mortgage for me once i have been out of work for 13 weeks.

does anyone here know what the criteria are exactly? is it means tested and if so what is the max. amount i should have in the bank to qualify?

cheers,
shirt.

[Soovy]

shirt said:

in a nutshell i am leaving my current role under a voluntary redundancy agreement and have no payment protection on my mortgage.

i was told in a 'counselling' session that if i switch to an interest free mortgage then the government has a scheme whereby they will pay my mortgage for me once i have been out of work for 13 weeks.

does anyone here know what the criteria are exactly? is it means tested and if so what is the max. amount i should have in the bank to qualify?

cheers,
shirt.

I'd be surprised if you qualify if you went voluntarily!

[shirt]

it was someone from the job centre who told me and they knew my circumstances so i'm hoping it stands. she did keep saying to make sure i was on an "interest free" mortgage though, hence the need to check!

[Deva Link]

I think they only pay the interest, it doesn't have to be interest only.

An ex-colleague was told by the job-centre he'd get all sorts of stuff, and got nothing.

[Dupont666]

interest only is only up to 200k mortgages and dont think you can switch... Plus you are not allowed any savings to qualify.

I had that issue that cause I was a clever boy and saved just in case Winky told me to bend over and accept that I would have to use all my money first before they would look into it and then I would have lost the property by the time they looked.

Why not ask the mortgage company for a mortgage holiday (can only use it a maximum of 6 months total) to give you some breathing room?

[shirt]

so it will only be paid if i have zero savings?

i guess i need to speak to an expert, i was told it'd be fine so long as i had under £16k in the bank.

mortgage isn't a problem per se, its just i'd rather not eat into the severance too much.

[Soovy]

Deva Link said:

I think they only pay the interest, it doesn't have to be interest only.

An ex-colleague was told by the job-centre he'd get all sorts of stuff, and got nothing.

This.

When I was between jobs I got no help with rent as I had bothered to save some money.

And I didn't have a sog on a string and eight ba stards.

[shirt]

well i was told i'd get fk all in the way of benefits other than the std. jam roll and this mortgage thing. my payout from work will be under £16k and by the time it hits my account i'll have spent enough to make sure my net savings are still less than this.

[Dupont666]

shirt said:

well i was told i'd get fk all in the way of benefits other than the std. jam roll and this mortgage thing. my payout from work will be under £16k and by the time it hits my account i'll have spent enough to make sure my net savings are still less than this.

I think they will need proof that you havent just spent it to get under the 16k limit then applied for it.

Can you prove that?

[shirt]

i am spending it on house renovations. money is in a seperate account and all goes on materials. current account is overdrawn by a few grand.

[Dupont666]

shirt said:

i am spending it on house renovations. money is in a seperate account and all goes on materials. current account is overdrawn by a few grand.

Could be a little dicey doing that and then trying to claim, as they used the banks and inland revenue to check me and all my isas and share to check

[shirt]

i'd let them see what they want. one account is +6k, the other -3k. severance should be 12ish so i balance out under the 16k threshold.

without having to pay the mortgage and come to work, my severance will last about 18mths if it absolutely has to but i could easily live on it for a year without having to change lifestyle.

[Dupont666]

shirt said:

i'd let them see what they want. one account is +6k, the other -3k. severance should be 12ish so i balance out under the 16k threshold.

without having to pay the mortgage and come to work, my severance will last about 18mths if it absolutely has to but i could easily live on it for a year without having to change lifestyle.

I think the mortgage payments are only a finite thing, so you get it for x months and then thats it.... pretty much like job seekers allowance

[Deva Link]

shirt said:

well i was told i'd get fk all in the way of benefits other than the std. jam roll and this mortgage thing. my payout from work will be under £16k and by the time it hits my account i'll have spent enough to make sure my net savings are still less than this.

This is furiously complicated for those not familiar with "the system" but I think you have to qualify for income related JSA to get help with housing costs.

Income related JSA reduces gradually with savings from £6000 and is zero at £16K. What I don't know is whether you would get the full amount of housing help even if you were only getting (due to savings) a small amount of JSA.

You should qualify for Contributions based JSA anyway, but that doesn't entitle you to housing help.

ETA: try this website - looks like you might get housing help if you get any level of income based JSA:
http://www.entitledto.co.uk/default.aspx

You should also get your council tax paid too.

Edited by Deva Link on Tuesday 17th November 20:52

[Soovy]

Put simply, unless you are a junkie, bandy legged single mum, pikey or immigrant, you are entitled to f ck all.

Goodnight.

[RizzoTheRat]

Soovy said:

I'd be surprised if you qualify if you went voluntarily!

Check the wording of your redundancy documentation. In some companies you volunteer to accept compulsary redundancy rather than taking voluntary redundancy, that can make a big difference.

[bogwoppit]

Deva Link said:

ETA: try this website - looks like you might get housing help if you get any level of income based JSA:
http://www.entitledto.co.uk/default.aspx

I just had a look at that site, in the section about savings, it calculates the weekly income from savings that the government assumes you get. For what I put in, it came out with an amount equivalent to 20% APR. Are they mental?

I'd love to know where HMRC are investing their spare cash, cos it ain't in government bonds that's for sure!

Edited cos the rate is even higher than I thought. Must be some mistake, surely...

Edited by bogwoppit on Wednesday 18th November 17:08

[Deva Link]

bogwoppit said:

Deva Link said:

ETA: try this website - looks like you might get housing help if you get any level of income based JSA:
http://www.entitledto.co.uk/default.aspx

I just had a look at that site, in the section about savings, it calculates the weekly income from savings that the government assumes you get. For what I put in, it came out with an amount equivalent to 20% APR. Are they mental?

I'd love to know where HMRC are investing their spare cash, cos it ain't in government bonds that's for sure!

Edited cos the rate is even higher than I thought. Must be some mistake, surely...

I presume that they assume your spending some of your savings - isn't that what they're for; a rainy day?

[condor]

shirt said:

i'd let them see what they want. one account is +6k, the other -3k. severance should be 12ish so i balance out under the 16k threshold.

without having to pay the mortgage and come to work, my severance will last about 18mths if it absolutely has to but i could easily live on it for a year without having to change lifestyle.

Way back in the 1990s I took voluntary redundancy and got about £12K, I started signing on straight away to have the NI stamp paid but didn't get any dole money for the first 3 months as my redundancy included 12 weeks notice. Normal living costs were in the region of £1K a month but the DHSS decided I only needed £50 odd a week to live on and therefore still considered I had a reasonable amount of savings. Once I realised I wasn't going to get anything I found a job nearly straight away