Help with Paying for Home Ownership Properties

This is a guide to the benefits that can help towards the housing costs in home ownership, including shared equity / shared ownership, freehold and long leasehold schemes.
Please do check all the drop down subheadings or click on the blue links below to check that the person you are helping will qualify, as there are fewer people than you  might think, who are able to get the whole of their housing costs covered! 

Who cannot get help with housing costs?
There are a number of restrictions to the help that can be given.
This depends on the claimant's circumstances, income, capital, work hours; also when they took out the mortgage- particularly if taken out while getting certain benefits (although there are exceptions): what the housing costs are for and whether they are regarded as excessive or based on a mortgage above set thresholds. Click on the links above for information.

Which benefits can help?
There are four benefits which can help with mortgage costs as well as helping to pay for day to day living expenses. Which one should be claimed depends on family circumstances:-Income Support (IS) ; Income-related Employment & Support Allowance (IR-ESA); Income based Jobseekers Allowance(IB-JSA); Pension Credit (PC). Click on the link above for more information.  

Which housing costs can be covered?
“Qualifying housing costs” include  payments in freehold, leasehold, shared equity and shared ownership schemes. They do not include rental payments as Housing Benefit covers these. They include interest repayments on mortgages or other loans taken out to pay for the normal home ie that the claimant is living in, but do not include the capital repayment or any endowment policies. They can also include some loans for essential repairs and improvements, and eligible service charges and loans taken out to pay for valuation fees, stamp duty and legal fees.  

How much help will someone get towards their housing costs?
The basic calculation is based on similar lines to Housing Benefit- ie income vs 'needs' (Applicable Amount) but there are additional complications: 
How much of the housing costs qualify
Whether the costs are restricted to previous Housing Benefit payments / housing cost payments
Whether the costs are restricted to a particular threshold
Whether the costs are restricted because the home is regarded as expensive or under-occupied
Whether the actual rate of interest charged is higher than the standard rate of interest used tin the calculation
What - if any- service charges are included. (And click here for how to get help with support-related charges).
Whether mortgage protection policy payments are being paid
Any non-dependant deductions
When savings are taken into account.

When will the housing costs be paid?
People of Pension Credit age or over can get Pension Credit for their housing costs immediately.  But people who are eligible for Income Support, Income-Related Employment and Support Allowance, or Income-Based JobSeekers Allowance to help with their mortgage or home loan may not receive this help for many weeks, although any other IS, IR-ESA, or IB-JSA they are entitled to will be paid. This is because the government is trying to encourage people to claim Mortgage Protection Insurance. Click on the link above for the different waiting periods that apply. And click here for the linking rules that allow periods between benefits to be counted towards waiting periods. 

Liable for housing costs?
Similar rules apply to help with housing costs as do for Housing Benefit- ie the claimant has to be liable or treated as liable for the property, and occupying or treated as occupying their home. Click above for more information.

How to claim help with mortgage costs
Click on this link for how to claim. And click here for information on the Mortgage Interest Run-on scheme.