1,500 homeowners a month seek state aid on mortgages
MORE than 1,500 applications for mortgage interest supplements are being lodged by struggling home owners every month, it has emerged.
As a result, community welfare officers administering the scheme for borrowers are being overstretched as demand for the state-paid mortgage assistance rises.
The number in receipt of Mortgage Interest Supplement has shot up by 260% since the height of the boom.
At the end of November 2009, 17,500 Mortgage Interest Supplement claims had been lodged for the whole year. Up to 12,800 claims were granted during the same period.
Recipient numbers have escalated since the boom, rising 260% since the end of 2007 when the total number of recipients was 4,111.
A private report for a section of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, which oversees the scheme, reveals the concern by community welfare officers over the mortgage arrears crisis.
The report, obtained by the Irish Examiner, puts the debt crisis down to "laissez faire lending practices" and a "childlike borrowing psyche" during the boom.
Waiting times for mortgage supplement payments are "problematic", it adds.
A review of the effectiveness of the Mortgage Interest Supplement scheme by the department is due for completion at the end of this month.
Labour’s Ciarán Lynch last night questioned the effectiveness of the State-funded mortgage supplement scheme, warning it was only a stopgap for borrowers.
"That (scheme) cannot be run on indefinitely," said the party’s housing spokesman.
Labour wants a national home mortgage agency to be set up, backed by emergency legislation, to assess mortgage arrears cases and enable debt-ridden borrowers to adapt their payment schemes with lenders.
Report by Juno McEnroe - Irish Examiner
MORE than 1,500 applications for mortgage interest supplements are being lodged by struggling home owners every month, it has emerged.
As a result, community welfare officers administering the scheme for borrowers are being overstretched as demand for the state-paid mortgage assistance rises.
The number in receipt of Mortgage Interest Supplement has shot up by 260% since the height of the boom.
At the end of November 2009, 17,500 Mortgage Interest Supplement claims had been lodged for the whole year. Up to 12,800 claims were granted during the same period.
Recipient numbers have escalated since the boom, rising 260% since the end of 2007 when the total number of recipients was 4,111.
A private report for a section of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, which oversees the scheme, reveals the concern by community welfare officers over the mortgage arrears crisis.
The report, obtained by the Irish Examiner, puts the debt crisis down to "laissez faire lending practices" and a "childlike borrowing psyche" during the boom.
Waiting times for mortgage supplement payments are "problematic", it adds.
A review of the effectiveness of the Mortgage Interest Supplement scheme by the department is due for completion at the end of this month.
Labour’s Ciarán Lynch last night questioned the effectiveness of the State-funded mortgage supplement scheme, warning it was only a stopgap for borrowers.
"That (scheme) cannot be run on indefinitely," said the party’s housing spokesman.
Labour wants a national home mortgage agency to be set up, backed by emergency legislation, to assess mortgage arrears cases and enable debt-ridden borrowers to adapt their payment schemes with lenders.
Report by Juno McEnroe - Irish Examiner