Mortgage help makes profit for claimants

Millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money will be used to overpay mortgages after the Chancellor extended the Government’s mortgage rescue scheme for another six months at a fixed rate of 6.08 per cent. More than 200,000 people on certain benefits are covered by the scheme, which was set up to help families to avoid repossession. Industry figures suggest that about a third of homeowners are on standard variable rate and 15 per cent are on tracker deals. The average interest rates on these mortgages are only 4.1 per cent and 3.65 per cent respectively, well below the rate paid by the scheme.