Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department have provided any guidance to mortgage lenders on the potential merits of including SEISS payments as income for the purposes of assessing affordability of a mortgage applicant.
HM Treasury is in regular conversations with mortgage lenders about market conditions. However, the decision of a lender to offer products to customers is a commercial one, in which the government does not seek to interfere.
In 2014 the FCA introduced regulations under the Mortgage Market Review which required lenders to conduct a rigorous affordability assessment for new borrowers, obtaining evidence of income and expenditure. Lenders have significant flexibility in determining how to assess the affordability and circumstances of individual customers.