Mortgage Broker Q&A; Do benefits count as income?
Author: Andy Bedford » Publish Date: 21 September 2009
In Mortgage Adviser Q & A we look at some the common questions answered by mortgage brokers on a day to day basis.
Question; Will lenders consider my benefits as income when assessing affordability?
Most lenders will consider some types of benefits as income and this varies from lender to lender. For example it is quite common for child tax credits to be considered as income but child benefit not to be, it is also quite common for other income such as regularly received child maintenance payments to be considered. Again though how much is applied will be specific to each individual lender.
Most lenders will however require you to have some form of income apart from benefits as well, this is because year by year benefits will be changed in the budget and your entitlement to a benefit cannot be guaranteed in the long term.
For information about which benefits are considered as income with different lenders seek independent mortgage advice.