Madam, – Your Editorial (“A little relief on mortgages”, November 11th) notes a report that between 25,000 and 30,000 borrowers are in mortgage arrears. This is likely to get much worse.
Imaginative solutions are needed to help those affected and to avoid the widespread hardship that would undoubtedly attend so many losing their homes.
It makes no sense to be saving for a pension if one is to lose a home.
Accordingly the Government should introduce a measure to allow people to halt payments into pension funds temporarily without the loss of the income tax relief they get for doing so.
Public servants facing a drop in income next year should also be allowed to pull out of their pension contributions for a period of years and suffer proportionate loss of pension and lump sum entitlements. For those doing so the pension levy should also be removed for the duration.
This would give people the ability to save their home at the cost of a reduced pension. If all goes well they can make up the difference in future with additional voluntary contributions. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Why not let those who are having a genuine difficulty making their mortgage repayments have the option of changing their contract for a lease repayable in say 60 years, (or at any other length of time), at an agreed price? This would mean that, instead of having to make large mortgage repayments, they could pay a reasonable rent, while at the same time the banks would be assured of a steady, if reduced, income and the taxpayer would be relieved of the burden of having to pick up the tab? – Yours, etc,