Self-employed parents whose trading profits dipped in 2018/19 because they took time out to have children will be able to claim for a payment under the self-employed new parents claim support grant (SEISS), the government has announced. The scheme requires claimants to have traded in 2018/19 with their profits making up at least half of their total income. They must also have submitted a self-assessment tax return on or before 23 April 2020 for the 2018/19 tax year.

The Treasury has ensured parents, including mothers, fathers and those who have adopted, who took time out of trading to care for their children within the first 12 months of birth of the child or within 12 months of an adoption placement, will now be able to use either their 2017-18 or both their 2016-17 and 2017-18 self-assessment returns as the basis for their eligibility for the SEISS.

They will also need to meet the other standard eligibility criteria for support under the SEISS. Further details of the change for self-employed parents will be set out by the start of July in published guidance.

The SEISS, which has so far had 2.6m claims, was extended last month, with those eligible able to claim a second, final grant in August, as well as being able to receive the first.

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Be on your guard! New scams can still catch you out, How to prevent scams?

Three days before the Prime Minister announced lockdown in March, City of London Police were already reporting a 400% increase in scams because COVID-19 was creating an ideal environment for fraudsters to do what they do best – try and take your money!

It’s important to be aware of the many new scams around at the moment because of coronavirus. With so much personal information out there, scammers are using the opportunity to play on your uncertainty. It’s crucial to know what kind of scams are happening, how to recognise them and report them.

What to look out for:

Phishing – these are emails and SMS messages that include links to websites where you are asked to put in your details. These could be login details, personal information or bank details. These may also appear to be from a government department or even the NHS.

This kind of scam may also consist of an unexpected visit to your door, with a person offering to do grocery shopping for you, or to get you cash, which would mean handing over your bank card and PIN.

How to spot – If it is an email, the first thing is to look at what’s in the email. Real organisations will not normally send you a URL link to click on and if you are a customer of the organisation, the email won’t address you with ‘Dear Customer’ or ‘Hello Client’, the email will greet you with your name. Scammers, who write these emails, aren’t always English native speakers, so look out for poor spelling, strange phrases and incorrect spacing.

If you receive emails or texts about coronavirus from someone you don’t know, or from an unrecognisable email address, don’t click on any links or purchase anything. Don’t give money or personal details to anyone you don’t know or trust – for example, someone who knocks on the door and offers to help. Communities are coming together to help those most vulnerable during these times; be sure to make arrangements first and know who’s coming to your door. 

How to prevent scams. Other types of scams that are happening at the moment include the following:

• Fake lockdown fines. Do not fall for a bogus text or email message stating you have been fined for stepping outside during the coronavirus lockdown. The scam message claims to be from the Government, telling the recipient their movements have been monitored through their phone and they must pay a fine or face a more severe penalty.
• Free school meals. The Department for Education has issued warnings about a scam email designed to steal your bank details saying: ‘As schools will be closing, if you’re entitled to free school meals, please send your bank details and we’ll make sure you’re supported.’
• WhatsApp request to forward your code. A recent scam could grant hackers full access to your WhatsApp messages, photos and videos. Someone who knows your phone number could request to register your WhatsApp on a different device, and when a verification code is sent to you, the hacker will then message you to try and coax you into forwarding this on to them. They could then target your contacts with requests for money.

If you’ve been affected by a scam, how do you report it?

There are a few things you can do. Firstly, report it to Action Fraud. You can visit their website which is run by the City of London Police and is where they track and keep tabs on all the different kinds of frauds. You can use their online reporting tool to report the scam. 

Equally, you can call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

If you notice unknown activity on your bank or credit card statement, do speak to your provider immediately and they will be able to help and give you the best possible advice. 

For more information, go to Brighton Mortgage Broker – The Finance House

Finally, the FCA offers an information website where you can read more about spotting a scam as well as a section where you can report a scam.‘

If there is one thing that the current climate has taught us, it is that we never quite know what the future holds and we need a financial safety net.

No matter what your financial situation may be today, it only takes one unexpected event for your plans to unravel very quickly. Having the right insurance cover in place will provide you with the financial support you need when you need it most. 

As time goes by, relationships multiply, house moves begin and raising a family or starting a business might be on the cards. The type of cover you need is very much unique to each individuals’ circumstances and should grow with you throughout your life. This makes it important for you to follow the advice of an expert and carry out regular reviews. 

Protecting your home and income should be at the top of your priority list. If you’re already paying for an insurance product, it may be tempting to cancel your insurance policy to save money. It’s important to bear in mind that an insurance policy will be there when things go wrong, taking that away will remove your safety net and you might put your future financial position at risk. A financial safety net is a unwanted cost until you need it!

So why not get in contact with us and we can arrange a review, to help find the best plan to fit your circumstances. Remember many policies come with a whole range of value adding benefits on top of the policy itself such as mental health helplines and virtual GP services so it’s important that you speak to us to find out what you might have available to you and your family.

For more on protection Click here

To see what the government will pay Click here

There is good news for those who are asking “can we now move” and are looking to move, all buyers and sellers, in England, can now put their properties on the market.

The government has estimated that 450,000 people have been unable to progress their plans to move since stay at home measures were introduced back in March.

As the lockdown easing begins, the housing market is opening its doors, allowing buyers and tenants in England to view properties and move home.

The viewing of new properties is now also permitted. Not only are house viewings allowed again, but estate agents can also visit properties to conduct valuations and take photos and videos.

This news will positively impact borrowers as it removes one of the main barriers to mortgage lending under lockdown. 

In March, lenders withdrew hundreds of largely higher-risk mortgage deals that required in-person valuations and put mortgage applications on hold where such surveys could not be completed. 

However, lenders are now widening the number of mortgage deals available, at higher loan-to-value (LTV). 

If you are considering moving home, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by using the form on the right or by giving us a call – we can then discuss the options available. Don’t forget, we are here to support you as much as possible during these challenging times. 

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For more information on Mortgages Click here

The effects of the ongoing pandemic are being felt by families across the UK. It is a difficult time as many families are facing a reduction or loss of income and need Financial Direction during Covid-19.

According to the Institute for Social and Economic Research, on average, families are £515 a month worse off. In such uncharted waters, with no clear map, it is only natural for people to think about their current and future financial arrangements.

As your Mortgage & Protection specialist, I just wanted to let you know that we are here, available and ready to support you. We have access to great technology solutions that allow us to review and arrange your finances securely without having to arrange a face to face meeting.

We want to make sure that you are informed, reassured and have the peace of mind knowing that you have the financial planning in place to ensure that you are financially resilient during the current crisis.

With this in mind, we wanted to reiterate a few things you might like to think about in order to limit the financial impact on you and give Financial Direction during Covid-19:

Mortgages: Mortgage lenders are offering payment holidays. This is great so long as you don’t have any arrears and are prepared to extend your mortgage by the length of the payment holiday (most lenders add the debt onto the end of the term) but are you sure you have the best interest rate available to you? In light of the recent Bank of England interest rate drop, lots of lenders have changed their rates. If you don’t have the best rate, your monthly payments may be much higher than they need to be.

You may wish to consider remortgaging to take advantage of potentially lower interest rates or to release some equity from your property (subject to lenders’ affordability checks). Give us a call and we can investigate this for you.

Protection Insurance: We would be very happy to provide you with a review of your existing insurance products to ensure that you have the most appropriate cover in place. If you don’t have any life insurance, critical illness or income protection insurance, then now is the time. In some cases, people will die and without the relevant protection insurance in place to protect their mortgage or to replace their income, then it won’t just be Coronavirus causing financial difficulties for the family left behind. Call us now to ensure you are looking after the financial protection of yourself and your loved ones.

Buildings & contents insurance: The nation is working from home – does your buildings & contents insurance allow this? What if your child, who is home from school, accidentally spills a drink on the shiny new laptop your company have provided to enable you to self-isolate? Who is liable? Some insurance policies allow administrative working from home, but not all – please check your policies, or better still, ask us to. If you don’t currently have any cover in place, then please let us know so we can get this arranged for you. This can be all done over the phone and we can get you a policy on risk within just a few hours.

The nation is in uncharted waters that will impact us all. We hope that The Finance House can support you in these uncertain times.

Data from UK Finance has shown that more than 1.2 million homeowners have taken out mortgage payment holidays since the chancellor’s announcement.

Under the government’s new policy, homeowners can apply for a A Guide to Mortgage Payment Holidays of payments for up to 3 months.

This could provide much needed help to mortgage holders who are feeling the effects of COVID-19, but it won’t be suitable for everyone and it won’t be free money. Homeowners who aren’t concerned about their ability to pay should continue with their repayments as normal. We have prepared the following guide to make sure you know the facts.

Don’t Cancel Your Direct Debit

Cancelling your direct debit is not a payment holiday and will be counted as a missed payment if it has not been agreed with your lender. You should not cancel your direct debit without speaking to them first. A missed payment could show up in your credit file and may impact your ability to remortgage in the future.

Apply Online

Many mortgage holders have found it frustrating trying to get through to their lender as call volumes have put pressure on their staffing resources. It is recommended that if you are experiencing payment difficulties due to coronavirus, you apply for a payment holiday through your lender’s website.

There will be a fast track approval process in place and you won’t need to provide evidence or have an affordability test. So, you should get a quick decision.

Any unpaid interest will probably still need to be paid back but you won’t have to worry about any additional fees or charges.

Individual credit ratings should not be affected but if you are worried you should speak with your lender.

Not a good option for everyone

Although Mortgage payment holidays can be a good short-term solution during the current pandemic, there are several important things that you should bear in mind before taking a payment holiday:

• It is not suitable if you can’t afford your mortgage payments because your household income has reduced permanently. In these circumstances, we would urge you to get in contact with us so we can review your situation and provide you with the appropriate advice.
• While you are not making mortgage payments, you’re still racking up interest on your remaining mortgage balance. You’ll still owe the bank the same amount as you do now, but with interest added on. This means it will take you longer and cost you a little more to clear your mortgage.

Mortgage Holiday Payment Calculator

You can use this Mortgage Holiday Payment Calculator to understand what impact a mortgage holiday will have on the term of your mortgage. It helps to show you the increased amount/number of mortgage payments you’ll need to make once your mortgage holiday is over.

We can’t stress the importance of understanding how a mortgage holiday can affect your future repayments. If you have any thoughts, concerns or queries, we are here to support you as your mortgage & protection adviser.

To speak to a free Mortgage expert Click Here

HMRC have updated their guidance to confirm that they will aim to contact all those who are eligible for Self Employment income support by mid May and invite them to make a claim with payments made by early June 2020.

As yet there has been no update for those of you who became self employed during 2019/20 and therefore may not currently meet the criteria for Self Employment Income.

Just to recap, you may be eligible for the Self Employment Income Support Scheme if you’re a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership and you:

• have submitted your Self Assessment tax return for the tax year 2018 to 2019
• traded in the tax year 2019 to 2020
• are trading when you apply, or would be except for coronavirus
• intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
• have lost trading profits due to coronavirus

You will need to confirm to HMRC that your business has been adversely affected by coronavirus. HMRC will as usual use a risk based approach to compliance.

Your trading profits must also be no more than £50,000 and more than half of your total income for either:

• the tax year 2018 to 2019
• the average of the tax years 2016 to 2017, 2017 to 2018, and 2018 to 2019

Full details of the scheme can be found by following this link

For a Brighton Mortgage broker, Click here

There is good news about Mortgage Availability with Lockdown as the UK’s top lenders are reintroducing their mortgage offers, making it easier to get a home loan as lenders find ways to operate during Covid-19 lockdown.

Mortgage Availability with Lockdown, Nationwide, Halifax, Virgin and Santander have made it easier for people to qualify for a loan. This is much welcomed news for prospective buyers who have been stuck in a world of limbo. Halifax and Nationwide are both now accepting mortgage applications at 85% LTV which means that you need a 15% deposit on the deposit that you want to buy.

Virgin Money began offering purchase mortgages again, as Santander increased its maximum loan size from £300,000 to £500,000 and cut fees on its residential mortgages.

Lenders have been changing the way they operate to cope with the lockdown and are now much more reliant on their IT systems. Through the use of virtual property valuations, lenders are adjusting to lockdown restrictions which has allowed them to reopen their temporarily closed doors.
There are now an increased number of options available to you if you are looking to purchase or remortgage. With The Bank of England’s base rate at its lowest levels in history, it could be a good time for you think about your current financial arrangements. We could be able to get you a better deal with a different lender to lower your monthly mortgage payments or allow you to raise additional capital.

For more information go to Brighton Mortgage Broker – The Finance House
To check the FCA register go to Register Home Page (fca.org.uk)

In its package to help people who have had their circumstances changed as a result of Covid-19, the Chancellor announced a series of measures to alleviate the financial impact of losing a job or self-employed income including a Mortgage payment holiday.

One of these was the option to take a mortgage payment holiday. But what is it and how does it work? We’ve created a guide that explains it in more detail. The first thing to say is that calling it a holiday isn’t strictly true. The Mortgage Payment Holiday was originally designed for customers who had fallen on hard times and couldn’t afford their monthly mortgage. The Lender would talk through the customer’s circumstances and then agree, if there was a way forward, to suspend the direct debit for three months whilst the customer sorted themselves out. In the background, the lender would add the missed payments, plus the interest payable onto the mortgage and then when the payments started again, the monthly amount would be higher to take into account in the increased in the mortgage. The customer’s credit report would show three missed instalments and therefore the payment holiday would have a negative impact on the customer’s ability to obtain credit in the future certainly at high street prices.

What has changed?

To have a payment holiday under the COVID-19 measures, you don’t need to be financially distressed and the link between your payments or should we say lack of them with a credit referencing agency is broken. This means that there should be no impact on your credit score if you choose to take a holiday. Instead, your mortgage payments after the 3-month holiday will go up to make sure you repay the mortgage amount plus any interest in full.

A word of warning

If you are coming to the end of a fixed rate or other such mortgage deal, a time when your mortgage would normally drop back on to a higher rate of interest, then normally your lender would offer you another deal to encourage to keep your mortgage with them.  This is sometimes called a rate switch or product transfer and is normally a similar rate of interest to what you would be have been paying under your current deal.  However, some lenders are not in a position to offer the new lower rate if you are currently taking a payment holiday. You could attract a higher rate of interest on your outstanding loan which is then added to your mortgage and not be able to do anything about it. So, when it comes to your payment holiday, timing is everything. Of course, if you choose to take a payment holiday and then cancel your direct debit you run the risk of defaulting on your mortgage which is a risk that could damage your ability to obtain a competitively priced deal in the future.  

Talk to an expert

Taking a payment holiday is a decision which should not be taken lightly, if the implications are not understood then over time it could end up costing more money than it looked to save in the first place.  Talk to us and we can help you understand what a payment holiday means for you and when would be the right time.  And, if it’s something you still want to do, how to go about requesting a suspension of your mortgage payments from your current lender – each has their own way of doing things and different turnaround times. So, the message is simple, act if you need to, make sure your take expert advice first, and let us help today so you have the right result every time.

For more details go to Brighton Mortgage Broker – The Finance House
https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/mortgages-coronavirus-consumers

The Chancellor has announced that self employed individuals who qualify will receive direct cash grants though a UK-wide scheme to help them during the coronavirus outbreak. The Chancellor has set out plans that will see those who are self-employed receive up to £2,500 per month in grants for at least 3 months. Called the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, those who are eligible can receive a cash grant worth up to 80% of their average monthly trading profit over the last three years. It is anticipated that this will cover 95% of people who receive the majority of their income from self-employment.

Eligible people for the scheme will be able to apply directly to HMRC for the taxable grant, using a simple online form, with the cash being paid directly into people’s bank account.

The Self Employed Income Support Scheme will be open to those with a trading profit of less than £50,000 in 2018-19 or an average trading profit of less than £50,000 from 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19. To qualify, more than half of your income in these periods must come from self-employment.

To minimise fraud, only those who are already in self-employment and meet the above conditions will be eligible to apply. HMRC will identify eligible taxpayers and contact them directly with guidance on how to apply. The income support scheme, which is being designed by HMRC from scratch, will cover the three months to May. Grants will be paid in a single lump sum instalment covering all 3 months, and will start to be paid at the beginning of June.

Individuals should not contact HMRC now. HMRC will use existing information to check potential eligibility and invite applications once the scheme is operational. Those who pay themselves a salary and dividends through their own company are not covered by the scheme but will be covered for their salary by the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme if they are operating PAYE schemes.

Self-employed individuals can already benefit from a series of measures announced by the Chancellor to boost household incomes and will be able to access these while the new scheme is being rolled out. These include increases to Universal Credit, alongside income tax and VAT deferrals.

For more information go to Brighton Mortgage Broker – The Finance House

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-gives-support-to-millions-of-self-employed-individuals