Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will reduce the number of weeks required for a claimant to be in receipt of universal credit in order to be eligible for support for mortgage interest payments.

Working age claimants will need to claim for a period 39 weeks before Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans can be paid. It is reasonable to expect that homeowners should make arrangements by working together with their lenders to meet their housing costs during short terms of unemployment and sickness. We provide support to claimants in explaining their circumstances to their lenders, enabling them to understand that the individual is qualifying for SMI.