Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether people who take out a mortgage interest loan will be required to notify or seek the permission of their existing mortgage lender to do so.

Mortgage lenders do not require their borrowers who are Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) claimants to seek their permission to take an SMI loan. The Department will issue and manage SMI loans. The level of support will be calculated in the same way as under the current system and claimants and mortgage lenders will not see any difference in the payments they receive. The Department will notify lenders where a claimant decides to take up the offer of an SMI loan.