Your personalised action plan
Thanks for answering those questions. Here are your personalised recommendations for the help you could get.
1. Help paying your mortgage
Get a mortgage payment holiday
If you have a mortgage and you’re not sure you’re going to be able to pay it you can ask for a 3 month mortgage holiday.
How does it work?
In most cases, your bank should let you not pay your mortgage for up to 3 months. Get in touch with your bank and ask them what they can do for you.
Will I have to pay that money back later?
Yes, you won’t be completely let off your payments, but the bank should just add the 3 month total to whatever the remainder of your mortgage is, and then you’ll just pay a little bit more every month when you start making repayments again.
It will mean that you end up paying a bit more in total for your mortgage (as you’ll be paying interest for a bit longer), so don’t automatically take a payment holiday unless you need it
How do I get it?
You’ll need to apply through your bank. Here’s a list of the main banks’ help pages:
2. Help paying your rent
Ask your landlord for help
Get in touch with your landlord (or letting agent if you rent through an agency). Ask the landlord if they can either give you a rent payment holiday, or let you pay a lower rent for a few months. Get whatever you agree in writing.
How do I ask my landlord?
We know it’s not easy to ask for a rent reduction or break. Remember that landlords may be able to get a mortgage payment holiday from their bank too. Here’s a template you can use to ask your landlord.
You can’t get evicted
The government has made a new emergency law, so that renters will not be evicted, even if you are unable to pay their rent. This will mean that your landlord cannot legally evict you for 3 months (this applies between 26 March – 30 September 2020). This will protect you whether you are renting privately, or from a local council or housing association.
So worse case scenario and you really can’t pay, your landlord cannot kick you out for 3 months.
3. Help with food and other living costs
Find a foodbank
There’s no shame in needing some help. There are thousands of people in the same boat right now, so please don’t hesitate getting in touch with your local foodbank if you need to.
If it’s a Trussell Trust foodbank, you’ll need to get a foodbank voucher first. You’ll just need to call your nearest foodbank and they can tell you how to get one (from your doctor, Citizens Advice and others).
Free school meals
If your children normally get free school meals, but aren’t at school at the moment, their school should have sorted out a way to continue providing meals. Either through a catering provider, food parcels or by issuing food vouchers that you can spend in a supermarket to buy food.
Schools can keep doing this even during the Easter holidays. So if yours hasn’t, send them to the government’s website FAQs.
Get a grant for costs
Some local charities provide grants if you’re having financial difficulties. You don’t have to pay them back usually, they’re just a payment to help you pay for food and other living costs.
4. Cancel things you don’t need
Childcare costs
If you’ve pre-paid for any childcare that you’re not using, speak to your childcare provider about getting a refund (or rolling those fees forward to cover when your kids are back in childcare).
Travel costs
If you pay for your travel on a yearly or monthly basis, you might be able to get a refund on your ticket. Just get in touch with your train or bus company.
If you’ve booked a package holiday or flight that has been cancelled, you should receive a full refund. However, we do know that some companies are refusing to issue refunds (and insisting on giving vouchers or asking you to re-book for later). If that’s the case, you can report them to ABTA.
If your travel company is stalling about giving a refund, you can try to claim under your credit card or debit card instead. Just get in touch with your bank and ask them how you do that.
Subscriptions
A lot of subscripton services will let you cancel almost immediately, or on 30 days, so if you need some money, cancel anything that you’re not going to need over the next 3 – 6 months. You can always re-subscribe. That includes gyms, entertainment, anything that you pay for on a regular basis.
Just check for any early termination fees first!