Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the removal of Support for Mortgage Interest as part of benefit entitlement from April 2018 will affect entitlement to passported benefits such as help with health costs, free school meals, sure start maternity grant and the warm home discount scheme.

The eligibility for passported benefits is often, but not always, linked to entitlement to income-related benefits such as Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit and Pension Credit. The introduction of Support for Mortgage Interest Loans in April 2018 will not change these criteria.

In some instances, claimants who are treated as receiving the income-related based benefit solely due to eligibility for SMI will no longer be automatically entitled to all ‘passported’ benefits. Many of these claimants will remain eligible to a number of passported benefits on the grounds of age or low income but will usually need to apply for them directly.