Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure the affordability of mortgages for people reliant on Support for Mortgage Interest, who have recently experienced an increase in their mortgage interest rates.

Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) makes a contribution towards eligible mortgage interest to enable people to remain in their homes without fear of repossession. SMI is calculated by applying a standard rate of interest to the capital balance on the outstanding loan. The standard interest rate is set at a level equal to the Bank of England's published monthly average mortgage interest rate. This rate was selected because it is an average of the rates that apply to claimants’ mortgages including fixed and variable rate mortgages. This will change when the Bank of England average mortgage rate differs by 0.5 percentage points or more from this figure.