Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which organisation will be responsible for debt recovery from mortgage interest loans and what guidance will be provided to that organisation on responding to elderly and vulnerable claimants.

Claimants will not be required to make repayment of their SMI loan until their property is sold or transferred. We anticipate that, in the vast majority of cases, there will be a charge placed on the property. This means that the recovery process will usually be handled via a solicitor dealing with the sale or transfer rather than directly with the claimant. Where there is insufficient equity to repay in full, claimants will not be pursued for the balance.

Recovery of mortgage interest loans will be the responsibility of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Debt Management who will be putting in place a new and bespoke Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) Loan Management unit. DWP currently deals with elderly and vulnerable customers every day, and there are no plans to deal with elderly or vulnerable SMI claimants any differently.