TODAY's BUDGET CHANGES

Hi Guys,

I fully understand your concerns over this, but speculation and supposition never helped anyone.

The details of how the changes are to be applied will have to be clarified, and the positive is that time is on our side as it is apparent that any changes to SMI, retrospective or not, will not come into force until April 2018.

We will try and clarify this issue ASAP.

Please don't turn this thread into a fruitless discussion, let's stick to the facts that we are sure of, the last thing that I want to do is lock it !!

Cheers

bro58

www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e5c93bae-257d-11e5-9c...a.html#axzz3g9uKdW73


Mortgage subsidies are set to be recouped from the homes of unemployed people, in a radical change to the benefit system that lenders’ bodies said could put more pressure on the finances of struggling households.
The Support For Mortgage Interest scheme pays homeowners’ mortgage interest costs if they become unemployed, their hours at work are reduced or are ill or disabled.
From 2018 that payment is to be changed into a loan, George Osborne announced as part of his Summer Budget on Wednesday. This loan will be repayable either when the property is sold, or when claimants return to work.
“Currently, those who receive benefits to help to pay their mortgage interest are able to do so indefinitely with no need to pay anything back,” an official Treasury document said. The change means that “homeowners [will] repay the financial support they receive”.
The government will charge interest on the loan at a rate tied to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast for gilts, the Treasury said.
The change will reap £270m in savings for the government by 2018-19, according to official forecasts.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders said the move was “the most significant Budget announcement for the mortgage market”.
“This is a radical change,” its director-general Paul Smee said. “The systems and risk challenges for our members arising from such a change are potentially huge.”
In depth

UK Summer Budget
UK budget in depth
George Osborne’s second Budget of the year, updating economic and public finance forecasts, will reveal the scale of the cuts ahead for public services and welfare payments

Full coverage
The CML “will do our utmost, whatever the landscape of state provision, to keep in their homes customers whose problems are temporary”, Mr Smee said. But, he warned, “this is a change that could have wide implications”.
The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association, which represents mortgage brokers, said the announcement “shows [the government] wants homeowners to stand on their own two feet financially”.
“But with rates certain to rise by then, the move is likely to increase the pressure on those households who are already the most vulnerable,” executive director Peter Williams said.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33590465

Acting Labour leader Harriet Harman is facing a revolt after ordering the party's MPs not to vote against the government's welfare bill later.
Scores of Labour MPs are expected to defy an instruction to abstain on the bill, which includes plans to limit child tax credit to two children.
Three of the four leadership contenders have also questioned her approach.
But Chancellor George Osborne has written in the Guardian praising Ms Harman's stance as "a step forward".
'Blaming the public'
The Labour leadership originally said it would not oppose the benefit changes announced by the government in the Budget, which aim to bring £12bn worth of cuts into force by 2020.
But many in the Labour party objected, with leadership candidates Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Jeremy Corbyn among those to criticise the plan. Only the fourth candidate, Liz Kendall, supported the move.
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Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham and Jeremy Corbyn clashed over welfare during a Labour leadership hustings on the BBC's Sunday Politics
Ms Harman tried to quell the revolt by tabling an amendment to the Welfare Reform and Work Bill setting out measures Labour backs and those it would change.
It offers support for the cutting household welfare cap to £20,000 a year (£23,000 in London), and moving mortgage support from grants to loans.
But it opposes the abolition of child poverty targets and changes to Employment and Support Allowance. It makes no mention of the child tax credit change.
Ms Harman said if the amendment was rejected, Labour MPs would be expected to abstain in the vote - leaving the way clear for the bill to be passed.
BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said the move had infuriated a large number of Labour MPs and that 60 had signed a rival amendment opposing the changes.
He said Mr Osborne's intervention in the Guardian would add to Ms Harman's discomfort.
Mr Osborne praised the acting Labour leader, saying: "She recognised that oppositions only advance when they stop blaming the public for their defeat and recognise that some of the arguments made by political opponents should be listened to - just as a previous Conservative opposition realised 15 years ago when it accepted the case for a minimum wage."
He said the benefit changes were in line with the views of most Labour voters and were a continuation of policies pursued by former Labour ministers.
"I believe this settlement represents the new centre of British politics, and appeal to progressive MPs on all sides to support us," he said.

Clarification on how the changes to SMI from April 2018 will be applied :

Support for mortgage interest changes will hit current claimants.

See also : ESA changes from April 2017 will improve “life chances” of 500,000 people by making them poorer.

From our News Section.

bro58

"
The DWP claim that the change will increase claimants’ life chances and reduce repossessions.

What an absilute lie. How the hell can they even write such rubbish.

John42 wrote: "
The DWP claim that the change will increase claimants’ life chances and reduce repossessions.

]What an absilute lie. How the hell can they even write such rubbish.

It will have exactly the opposite affect.

Tories as ever true to form we will make the poor poorer and the rich richer.

lets hope someone starts some hard campaigning to get this ruthless and unfair policy reversed.