Mortgage Interest Support, MI12 and JSA3

[BlurredFX]

Andy,

 

Did you get anywhere with the "rapid reclaim" or what ever it is called. I wonder if Ant and Dec, sorry Nick and Dave, will tinker with the MIS at the emergency budget... Let's hope not eh??

 

Anyone else with any news to share?

 

Blurred:D ( It's sunny and I will be in a beer garden in a few hours )

[andydd]

Andy,

 

Did you get anywhere with the "rapid reclaim" or what ever it is called. I wonder if Ant and Dec, sorry Nick and Dave, will tinker with the MIS at the emergency budget... Let's hope not eh??

 

Anyone else with any news to share?

 

Blurred:D ( It's sunny and I will be in a beer garden in a few hours )

 

Well..Yes..and ..no. the actual rapid reclaim bit went through easily and my mortgage interest claim kicked in..BUT the problem was that my 3 month temp job I had was on a self employed contract basis, through a Ltd company (my brothers), so I had to pay my own NI and Tax which is no big deal

 

The problems came when I happened to mention the words 'self-employed' to the job center over the phone, they then automatically assume that youve been running your own business, I was sent all sorts of strange forms asking questions like 'when do you expect your business to pick up?', completely irrelevant to my case, I explained over the phone to staff who understood my position, (i.e I wasn't self employed running a company, I had simply had a temp 3 month job, paid on a self employed basis).

 

Anyway the upshot is that this delayed my claim and I did eventually get my money about 6 weeks later which was difficult !.

 

So a word of warning if anyone is in the same situatiuon and is offered short term contract work (im my career, IT Support, being paid on a self employed basis is normal).

 

The strange thing is, that no-one ever checked or asked to see paper work from my temp job, they only knew it was self employed as I used those words and wished I hadn't !

 

Despite all this, everything else kicked in to where I was before I had the temp job.

 

Andy

[BlurredFX]

Good info Andy,

 

Just thought I would tell people that I have just been informed by GE that I am £230 and odd to the good, i.e. the DWP overpayments have cleared the arrears and are now accumulating on my account. I asked for it back, and unsurprisingly they said no - I didn't argue.

 

I am happy to leave it there accumulating, and when I get back into work (looking up at last), I will put the mortgage payments into a savings account and use the overpayments. I might even have some savings for the first time in years.

 

Plus... the emergency budget is coming, which could be a real game changer...

 

FX

Edited June 9, 2010 by BlurredFX
typo

[BlurredFX]

Right, well, I listened to the Budget, and did hear some reference to SMI, but have yet to find any concrete info.

 

The link below gives some idea:

 

EMERGENCY BUDGET: SMI payments brought in line with BoE rate | News | Mortgage Strategy

 

Though I do note that the old, old rate of 1.58% over base, may not apply.

 

Why?

 

Well this is how the BoE calculates the rate to which it refers.

 

Bank of England | Statistics | Interactive Database | Explanatory Notes | Household interest rates

 

And it says they look at what's available on the market... which is a lot different from what it used to be when the rate was 1.58% over base.

 

Hopefully this means that the new rate will be higher...

 

If anyone finds anything, post it up. In the mean time, I will keep looking

 

Thoughts anyone??

 

Blurred

[andydd]

Right, well, I listened to the Budget, and did hear some reference to SMI, but have yet to find any concrete info.

 

The link below gives some idea:

 

EMERGENCY BUDGET: SMI payments brought in line with BoE rate | News | Mortgage Strategy

 

Though I do note that the old, old rate of 1.58% over base, may not apply.

 

Why?

 

Well this is how the BoE calculates the rate to which it refers.

 

Bank of England | Statistics | Interactive Database | Explanatory Notes | Household interest rates

 

And it says they look at what's available on the market... which is a lot different from what it used to be when the rate was 1.58% over base.

 

Hopefully this means that the new rate will be higher...

 

If anyone finds anything, post it up. In the mean time, I will keep looking

 

Thoughts anyone??

 

Blurred

 

Yeah..I heard him quote SMI too, but no details, I did find some stuff on the web, but that appeared to be just suggestions from a financial body, the main being, that claims should be individually assessed, so the % paid might vary but no idea whether this is what will happen.

 

The present rate of %6.08 is great for same, not so good for others. I have a mortgage in 2 parts, 1 im paying base +2 = 2.5% the other is about 5.9%, so I get 'overpaid' a bit, which helps eat away at the capital; part of the mortgage.

 

Whilst taking an average mortgage rate maybe fair, there are many people (me included) who are stuck with a high fixed rate for many years to come and there is nothing they can do about it.

 

Andy

Edited June 22, 2010 by andydd

[BlurredFX]

..the main being, that claims should be individually assessed, so the % paid might vary but no idea whether this is what will happen.

 

I seem to recall, while doing some research on this a while ago, they they packed in that idea in the eighties because it was an administrative nightmare - which I can imagine. There was also problems with the fact that by the time the admin had gone through, people had been overpaid and there was obviously problems getting that back.

 

I get overpaid to, and it sits on my account with GE. What happens to your overpayment?

[BlurredFX]

What happens to your overpayment?

 

Sorry, re-read your post!!

[pinkllama]

it seems that from october 2010, payments will be based on the bank of england's published average mortgage rate.

 

can someone post a link to where this rate is published? there was one link earlier in this thread, but as far as i can see it just leads to a bank of england page that does not display the rate.

[BlurredFX]

OK,

 

Easy-to-browse Budget document - HM Treasury

 

Look at section 1.112 of this from the government today. It says

 

1.112

The rate at which Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) is paid is set at 1.58 percentage points above the Bank of England Base rate, and it has been frozen at 6.08 per cent since late 2008 although interest rates have fallen significantly. To put SMI on a more sustainable footing and to better reflect mortgage costs, SMI will be paid at the level of the Bank of England’s published Average Mortgage Rate from October 2010.

 

Now I have had a quick look around, and it appears that the rate is currently running somewhere around 4 to 4.4% in early 09, post the major interest rate cuts. Don't know what it is now, and can't substantiate the numbers properly, but that is what I have found out.

 

Blurred:)

[andydd]

OK,

 

Easy-to-browse Budget document - HM Treasury

 

Look at section 1.112 of this from the government today. It says

 

1.112

 

 

Now I have had a quick look around, and it appears that the rate is currently running somewhere around 4 to 4.4% in early 09, post the major interest rate cuts. Don't know what it is now, and can't substantiate the numbers properly, but that is what I have found out.

 

Blurred:)

 

Yeah..I found the same info.. about 4 to 5% in 2009, no idea what the average is now, a lot would depend on how this average is worked out, it all depends wheher you are a new or old borrower, how much deposit you put down, wheher it is a fixed rate, how many years it is fixed for. etc.

 

If it does suddenly fall to 4% from the current 6.08 is going to affect me quite a bit and maybe push some people over the edge.

 

At present people could be paying almost any %, for example, you may be lucky to be on base + 2%, paying 2.5%, but then again some people found getting a mortgage difficult and thus they are stuck on sub-pime rates of upto 20% or higher.

 

Although my 2nd mortgae part ends its fixed rate of 5.8 in October so hopefully that will help, hopefully will have found employment before then though

 

Now where exactly do they publish this BoE Average mortgage Rate ?. Its bloody hard to find !!

 

Andy

Edited June 22, 2010 by andydd

[nks22]

You'd think it might be possible to give people the actual amount they have to pay. It would, of course, involve more admin but there would be considerable savings from those (including me) who are currently benefiting from overpayments.

[nks22]

While I'm here, is anyone receiving payments for other housing costs like service charges? I was told I should put a claim in (I'm in a leasehold flat and pay management charges, etc.) and they'd see if anything qualified but despite doing this twice I've heard nothing back.

[andydd]

While I'm here, is anyone receiving payments for other housing costs like service charges? I was told I should put a claim in (I'm in a leasehold flat and pay management charges, etc.) and they'd see if anything qualified but despite doing this twice I've heard nothing back.

 

Yep..I get some money for ground rent & service charges

 

It did take a while to sort out, I think the letters to/from the BDC were sometimes at cross purposes and they got confused with my claim for SMI on a loan secured on the property, which eventually worked out I only get a few quid for...Eventually I had a call from a manager who sorted everything out.

 

Andy

[BlurredFX]

Don't start me on service charges.... Andy I think you have helped me regarding an issue on that... which is due up in Court in a month... but have a meeting to sort it out tomorrow...

 

Might ask you further details about your service charge, and the poss of getting it back-dated... STRESS!!!

 

Ah well, footy time

[BlurredFX]

While I'm here, is anyone receiving payments for other housing costs like service charges? I was told I should put a claim in (I'm in a leasehold flat and pay management charges, etc.) and they'd see if anything qualified but despite doing this twice I've heard nothing back.

 

You might hear from me again, NKS!!

 

That is my next issue!

[nks22]

Yep..I get some money for ground rent & service charges

 

Thanks. I shall persist then.

[andydd]

Don't start me on service charges.... Andy I think you have helped me regarding an issue on that... which is due up in Court in a month... but have a meeting to sort it out tomorrow...

 

Might ask you further details about your service charge, and the poss of getting it back-dated... STRESS!!!

 

Ah well, footy time

 

Ha..Me too.

 

I had an LVT case regarding service charges going back to 1996, I wasnt really happy with the outcome, LVT decisions can be very inconsistant and they seem to vary depending on how the LVT members were feeling on the day !..I'm appealing it now. My LVT case is on the web if you fancy having a peek.

 

Now a seperate case regarding overpaid ground rent is coming up soon too, this is all new to me and my first time in court, I'm hoping to use provisions of S32 Limitation Act to get money back beyond the usual 6 year limit.

 

Andy

[nks22]

I'm now getting money for service charges and ground rent! Unfortunately they've only dated it from my second letter to them (27 May) so I now have to appeal to get it backdated at least to my first, ignored, letter if not to the start of my ESA claim.

[nks22]

Benefit that pays interest on loans to be halved from October

 

The benefit, which pays the interest on a mortgage, is to be reduced from its present value of 6.08% to what the government says is the Bank of England average mortgage rate of 3.67% – a cut that means a loss of £1,300 annually for every £100,000 borrowed.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/aug/09/mortgage-benefit-cuts-disabled-housing

 

The article is about benefits for the disabled but presumably the same cut will apply to everyone else.

[nks22]

Although Knight Frank is predicting a rise in average mortgage rates of about 0.5% p.a. over the next four years.

[andydd]

Although interest rates are low at present, there surely are not that many people who actually have a rate as low as 3.67%, getting a low rate is very hard at the moment, I'm still stuck on a fixed rate of 5.14% for another year or so.

[nks22]

Too true. And anyone on benefit is not going to be in a position to shop around for a new mortgage. My fixed deal ended last December and I now pay the standard variable rate of 4.84% (Bank of Scotland). The change will cost me £66/week, although I'll 'only' have to find £32/week to make up the monthly repayment on my loan.

[michellej1]

hi all , have a question , need the maths teachers , APR v Interest Rate

 

35.26 APR , would equal what ? interest rate ,.. thanks

[andydd]

hi all , have a question , need the maths teachers , APR v Interest Rate

 

35.26 APR , would equal what ? interest rate ,.. thanks

 

Surely APR is an interest rate, its just a way of showing it, there are others.

[michellej1]

Surely APR is an interest rate, its just a way of showing it, there are others.

 

Yes I agree , what I did mean to say was if the APR is 35.26 , what would be the flat rate which is displayed on credit agreement?

 

mine is stated as 12% , (APR) is also shown

 

but when you go to a Loan Repayment Calculator , put in the balance and term , 12% as stated does not produce the figures in the agreement ,

 

payments are £163 per month , to get £163 per month and match other figures the interest rate quoted does not match

 

12% would equal payments of £111

 

20.31% charged would get the figures exactually as the same in the agreement ,..

 

If this is the case then I am lead to believe that the agreement would be voidable

on 2 grounds

 

1st , Under the Misrepresentation Act 1967

 

also under Common Law , Mistake , opertive mistake from the beginning of contract , mistake in a term of the contract

 

Before I go along these lines , I want to confirm my maths and hear others thoughts regarding the APR v Flat rate , thanks in advance