Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people who will be affected by removal of support for mortgage interest in April 2018.

From 6 April 2018 a new loans-based system of support for mortgage interest will replace the current benefits-based provision. Changing this support from a benefit into a loan is intended to ensure that owner-occupier claimants continue to have the same protection against the risk of having their homes repossessed, whilst providing increased fairness to taxpayers. Eligibility to support for mortgage interest loans is the same as the the support for mortgage interest as a benefit.

There are currently an estimated 124,000 existing support for mortgage interest benefit recipients who will be affected by the change.

The Impact Assessment and Explanatory Memorandum published alongside the Loans for Mortgage Interest Regulations in July 2017 provide information on the affected groups (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/725/impacts).