# 15,000 households getting mortgage aid



## Brendan Burgess (3 Jan 2010)

The Irish Times has an article on this [broken link removed] I think it's very relevant to dealing with negative equity and arrears. 

14,740 households are getting mortgage interest relief supplement. 
This cost the government €55m in 2009. 

90,000 are getting rent supplement - this cost €450m in 2009.



> Under the scheme, households receive an average of €365 every month to help them cover part of their repayments. The mortgage interest relief supplement is designed to be a short-term payment to cover the interest portion of the home loan.


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## Brendan Burgess (3 Jan 2010)

It seems that it is cheaper to keep someone in the home which they own, than to help them pay their rent if they lose their home. 

Brendan


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## jpd (3 Jan 2010)

The mortgage interest relief is only part of the cost of a mortgage. - someone, somewhere is paying or will have to pay for the capital portion of the repayments.


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## Brendan Burgess (3 Jan 2010)

If the average is €365 per month, then presumably some people are getting €600 a month or €7,000 a year. It seems a lot.


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## GreenQueen (3 Jan 2010)

A couple of reasons why the rent supplement bill would be larger than the mortgage interest supplement bill:

1. If you have a place on a local authority housing list but the council cannot accommodate you then you qualify for rent supplement if your current housing is inadequate.  

2. Rent supplement can be a long term payment.  Some recipients would be claiming rent supplement for over 6 years.  So there hasn't been a steady increase in claimants, rather there are people who were claiming before the recession who are bumping up the figures.

3. Mortgage Interest Supplement is viewed as being a short term handout.  I know of 2 families who have had their supplement removed in the past year.  The supplement is granted for an initial 12 months (or less) and is not automatically renewed.  If the claimants don't make efforts to reduce their mortgage responsibility (e.g. take in a tenant/come to reduced payment arrangement with their lender) then they could lose the payment.


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