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Housing Costs: Living Property You Own

An extra payment is available for people who own the home they live in if they qualify for Universal Credit. You would need to have been on benefits for at least 39 weeks (and without any breaks).

If you or your partner live in a property that you own, the Universal Credit housing payment could help you to pay for:

  • Home insurance.
  • Certain repairs and maintenance.
  • The cost of buying your property.

You might also get help paying for some service charges, such as:

  • The use of shared facilities (e.g. communal lifts or rubbish collection).
  • Window cleaning services of upper floors.

Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI)

In some cases, the extra payment might help you with Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI). It is a loan that could help towards the interest payments on:

  • The mortgage of the property you are living in.
  • Certain loans that you secured for certain types of property repairs and improvements on your home.

Note: There is no automatic qualification for getting an SMI loan. But, it could help you to pay the interest on a mortgage or a loan (up to £200,000).

The amount that you can get varies. They will base it on a set rate of interest on the amount of mortgage left to pay off. Even so, the payment would go direct to the mortgage lender.

You would need to repay Support for Mortgage Interest loan. You would pay it back with interest at the time you sell or you transfer your ownership of the property.

Living in a Shared Ownership Property

You could get help paying the interest on a mortgage if you live in a shared ownership property. The payment is part of the affordable home ownership schemes. The payment goes to the Universal Credit claimant so you would need to pay it forward.

Note: You may also qualify for extra help with some service charges if you are living in a leasehold property.

Living in a Property You Own and Claiming Universal Credit