Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken since the Impact Assessment on Converting Support for Mortgage Interest from a benefit into a loan, published in June 2017, identified limited data on disabled claimants using the Support for Mortgage Interest loan scheme; and what measures they have taken to address the impact assessment's conclusion that the scheme was likely to have a disproportionate impact on disabled claimants.

Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) transitioned from a benefit to a loan in April 2018. Support was provided at the same level as before, ensuring the same degree of protection against repossession.

SMI loans are not repayable until the property is sold and then, only to the extent that there is any available equity.

Since SMI converted to a loan, the Department has regularly reviewed the impact of the policy on its recipients, including on people with disabilities. In March 2021, loan ‘porting’ was introduced to allow SMI recipients to transfer their loan to a new property rather than repay. The primary purpose of this change was to enable disabled recipients to move home due to changes in their disability requirements. Further changes were introduced in April 2023 which extended eligibility to in-work Universal Credit recipients and support was provided after three months instead of nine.

Two separate research projects related to SMI have been conducted and published, in March 2022 and May 2025. Both are publicly available, and a copy will be deposited of both publications in the House of Lords library.