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Support for Mortgage Interest - eligibility
Gov.uk says you can start getting the SMI loan “after you’ve got Universal Credit for 3 months in a row or you moved to Universal Credit within a month of another benefit ending and you’ve spent 3 months in total getting these benefits.”
Does Maternity Allowance count as one of these other benefits? I have a client who has got a couple of months of maternity allowance left and then will probably make a claim for UC. So would the Maternity Allowance be counted as the qualifying 3 months for applying for SMI?
Eligibility
To be eligible for a Support for Mortgage Interest (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. 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 3 months in a row or you moved to Universal Credit within a month of another benefit ending and you’ve spent 3 months in total getting these benefits.
“these benefits” refers solely to the qualifying benefits above, as I read it anyway
Thank you Peter - I think that’s what I thought too - just wanted to check!