www.iva.co.uk

Hello All

I finished my IVA back in 2008 and due to helping parents I have about £19,000 in debts (not an issue as I can pay them off and they are all up to date).

The issue here is my parents are in a dire situation and need help.

They are about 6 years off the end of their interest only mortgage and will still owe £192,000 but have equity of @£100,000. Once they pay off their bills they should have @£50,000 to put down as a deposit on a new property, and this is where I come in.

I should be able to get a mortgage (relatively easily) for @£100,000 and add that to the £50,000 they should be able to get a decent property (in the area I'm looking at I've seen some nice bungalows for @£150,000).

So my question (or rather questions are):

1. is this possible?

2. could they still claim benefits (i.e. housing benefit etc) if I'm on the mortgage. Mum is 68 and would retire with a very small private pension and @£112 per week state pension, Dad is receiving @£81 per week in disability benefit, they aren't claiming anything else.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Shaz[xx(]

3. am I missing any pitfalls here?

I don't see why this is not possible for you Shaz, presumably the property would be in your name?

The fact that they have received a cash sum of £50k from the sale of their property will probably make them ineligible to receive housing benefit, however - but I am not a benefits expert so you would be better off enquiring directly to the DWP in this regard.

Could you afford to pay the new mortgage payments without a financial contribution from your parents?

Thanks Melanie

I'm just awaiting some feedback from Age Concern.

I could afford to pay the mortgage on my own but really want my parents to also contribute. I don't mind helping them but there does come a point where you have to draw a line...

Fingers crossed we find a solution

Great idea to seek help from Age Concern - I guess that organisations like this will become more involved as debt within the elderly seems to be increasing at an alarming rate.

Best of luck with everything and well done for helping your folks out. My own Mum lived with us for 12 years before she went into residential care, and I know first hand what a burden caring for our parents can actually seem.

font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:<hr height="1" noshade>Originally posted by s.b.w

2. could they still claim benefits (i.e. housing benefit etc) if I'm on the mortgage.

It's extremely unlikely that they could claim housing benefit if renting from a close relative (i.e. you).

That's the thing. .. I would not be the only one on the mortgage and they wouldn't in theory be renting from me. We would all be paying out fair share. ... so surely they could claim benefits for their thirds of the mortgage?

You'd really need to get some advice from DWP/LA about this. Housing Benefit (now called Local Housing Allowance?) is only available to people who rent property. Your parents may be eligible for some payments of mortgage interest from DWP, but this can get really complicated and I'm not sure how it would work if the property was part-owned by someone who wasn't resident. They would probably be eligible for help with council tax payments.

All the above is assuming that your mum's pension is small enough to not take them over the threshold for claiming means tested benefits...

Try running their (future) details through entitledto.co.uk to get an idea of what help they may get.

Thanks everyone - will try the website now!

This is of course if my parents DO want this....

Hey hoo it's all fun isn't it!???