Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) received less than two months notice of the closure of SMI.

Data on the number of claimants who will have less than 2 months’ notice of the introduction of SMI on 6 April 2018 is not available. A managed information provision process began in July 2017 to inform all existing recipients of SMI benefit of the new scheme. The regulations contain provision for all claimants to be given at least 6 weeks from the loan offer to make a decision whether to accept or decline an SMI loan before their SMI benefit payments cease. This 6 week period may run beyond 6 April 2018.