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Old folk in fear of losing their homes
PENSIONERS in South Tyneside fear losing their homes after the Government slashed mortgage support payments.
To help struggling homeowners, the last Labour Government introduced the Support for Mortgage Interest initiative so low-income families could pay off their mortgage interest, and wouldn't have their homes repossessed.
But as of tomorrow, the Government is slashing the amount of the SMI, meaning families will have to fork out extra.
And now some people, especially the elderly who can't return to work, are worried how they're going to stump up the extra cash.
John Berry, the South Shields secretary of the North East Pensioners' Association, says the move is 'criminal'.
He said: "I can't believe they are doing this – I think it's a dammed disgrace, in fact it's criminal.
"In a nutshell, they're basically asking people to give them 1 when all they have is 20p. It can't be done, and this is going to cause so much worry for people.
"It's not just pensioners, but young people too, who may have bought a house and lost their job with the recession.
"I genuinely think in some instances people will have their homes repossessed because they just cannot afford to meet the payments."
To be able to qualify for the SMI people had to be on job seeker's allowance, income support or pension credit.
The last Government calculated a general mortgage interest rate for the benefit, based on the Bank of England's base rate, plus one per cent.
This was fixed when the base rate was high and stands at 6.08 per cent.
But because the base rate has since plummeted to 0.5 per cent, the Government is lowering the SMI to 3.63.
The Department of Work and Pensions said the SMI was never intended to pay off any of the capital, just the mortgage interest.
A 78-year-old, from South Shields, who does not wish to be named, is now worried she'll lose her home.
She said: "I haven't dared work out how much extra money I will have to pay just yet – I'm scared to.
"I only got the letter on Tuesday, saying what was happening, everything is going so quick.
"I don't know where they expect me to get the extra cash from, I'm cutting it fine as it is with my pension payments.
"I really am concerned that I'm going to end up losing my home. It's not as if anyone will want to employ someone of my age."
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Weather for South Shields
Thursday 23 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 7 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 25 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 26 mph
Wind direction: West
