Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to provide additional support to Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) claimants who lack capacity to apply for SMI as a loan.

Where a claimant lacks capacity to make a decision, DWP communicates directly with the claimant’s representative to identify the appropriate person with legal capacity to make a decision for the claimant. The appropriate person is sent all relevant letters and forms, undertakes the informed discussion and signs the Loan forms where the loan is accepted. Identifying the appropriate person may take additional time so SMI benefit can be paid for an extended period until November 2018 where appropriate under transitional arrangements. In some cases where an application for financial Deputyship has been made and not yet decided this period can extend beyond November 2018.