Official Statistics

Support for Mortgage Interest statistics, May 2018 to May 2025

Published 30 September 2025

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

1. Main stories 

The statistics cover the period from May 2018 up to the latest quarter, March 2025 to May 2025, and show:  

• over 14,500 households received a Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) payment between March 2025 to May 2025 

• the majority of households receiving SMI payments have Universal Credit (68%, 9,800) as a qualifying benefit, followed by Employment and Support Allowance (19%, 2,700). Other qualifying benefits are Pension Credit (13%, 1,800), Income Support (<1%) and Jobseeker’s Allowance (<1%) 

• the mean average amount of SMI loan was £70 per week, between March 2025 and May 2025, a 4% increase compared to the previous quarter. The median average amount was below the mean at around £64 per week, a 4% increase on the previous quarter. Both the increase in the median and mean reflect a rise in the interest rate used to determine the amount of SMI loan from September 2024  

• around 33,000 households have received an SMI loan from when SMI became a loan in April 2018. This includes loans that are no longer in payment  

2. What you need to know 

Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) contributes towards the interest payments on eligible claimant’s mortgage or home improvement loans. It aims to protect recipients with mortgages from possession. SMI transitioned from a benefit to an interest-bearing loan in April 2018. Broadly, eligible working age recipients can get help paying interest on up to £200,000 of their mortgage or loan, while pension age and certain other working age legacy recipients can get help on up to £100,000 (see the About these statistics section or further information on eligibility). 

Since April 2023, changes to the SMI eligibility rules for recipients of Universal Credit (UC) reduced the required qualifying period claimants must wait before being eligible for SMI and extended eligibility to all in-work UC claimants.  

The statistics count the number of households who receive a payment in each quarter and the total number of households to receive a loan payment since April 2018. The statistics can be broken down by qualifying benefit and by geography, and report the number of households in receipt of the loan, and both the mean and median weekly amount of the loan. The caseload is reported quarterly. 

Data source 

SMI payments are taken from the Central Payment System (CPS) which is an integrated payment and accounting system for the Department. The statistics take the date the payment covers, the payment date and the amount of SMI loan payment from the CPS system. This information is then combined with information on the qualifying benefits, and geographic information taken from DWP’s Customer Information System (CIS).  

Qualifying benefit information is taken from internal datasets which are used to produce the related official statistics for Universal Credit, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support and Pension Credit. Further guidance on these statistics is provided in the background information and methodology document.  

Additional data 

The majority of data referenced throughout this report can be found on Stat-Xplore, where further breakdowns can also be created.   

3. SMI loans in payment 

Figure 1: The number of households in receipt of an SMI payment per quarter, April 2018 to May 2025 

The SMI caseload increased slightly in the latest quarter

A household is classed as being in payment of Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) if it receives an SMI loan payment, of any (non-zero) amount, during the quarter.  

The number of SMI loans in payment had been slowly declining, after an initial peak in the three months up to May 2019, reaching below 12,000 in February 2023. In April 2023, eligibility changes to Universal Credit claimants were introduced, reducing the waiting period of eligibility from nine to three months and extending SMI to in-work claimants. From May 2023 onwards, the SMI caseload increased for seven consecutive quarters, up to November 2024, remaining stable at around 14,000 up to February 2025. The caseload then increased again in the latest quarter with 14,500 SMI loans being in-payment in the three months up to May 2025, a 2% increase on the previous quarter.  

Since April 2018, a cumulative total of 33,000 households have received an SMI loan, including loans that are no longer in payment. Since April 2023, the cumulative caseload increased at a faster rate (a 14% increase between May 2024 and May 2025) than it had in the four years prior to April 2023 (an annual average increase of 7%).  

Qualifying Benefit Breakdown 

Figure 2: The percentage of the SMI caseload by each qualifying benefit since April 2018 

The percentage of the SMI caseload with UC as the qualifying benefit has been increasing over time, particularly since April 2023

▲– from September 2025 onwards, the Jobseeker’s Allowance figures have been suppressed, due to the small size of the caseload.

To qualify for SMI, a member of the household must be in receipt of one of the following qualifying benefits: income-based JSA; income-related ESA; Income Support (IS); Universal Credit (UC) or Pension Credit (PC).  

Both the absolute number and proportion of SMI loans with UC as the qualifying benefit have been increasing from 27% (3,200 loans in payment) during March to May 2023 to 68% (9,800 loans in payment) during March to May 2025. The increase in UC SMI loans may be the result of a combination of factors, including widening eligibility criteria from April 2023, and the move to UC (the migration of working age legacy benefit recipients to UC).

As the number of UC SMI loans has increased, the number of legacy working age (JSA, ESA, IS) SMI loans has decreased both in absolute and proportional terms. In May 2023, working age legacy benefits accounted for 52% (6,300) of SMI loans, falling to 19% (2,700) during March to May 2025. Whilst the number of PC loans has remained broadly stable, at around 2,000 in payment, since the quarter up to May 2023, PC loans as a proportion of total caseload has decreased from 18% to 13% by the most recent quarter up to May 2025.

Figure 3: The average weekly amount of SMI by each qualifying benefit, since April 2018, with the Standard Interest Rate (SIR) changes denoted via vertical lines 

The average weekly loan payment continues to increase in line with Standard Interest Rate (SIR) changes

▲- from September 2025 onwards, the JSA figures have been suppressed, due to the small size of the caseload 

♦ - due to the small size of the remaining IS caseload, small compositional changes can have a large impact on the weekly average amount. As such, caution is advised when comparing and interpreting the average amount figures 

The average weekly amount of SMI paid between March 2025 and May 2025 was just over £70, a 4% increase compared to the previous quarter (£68). In September 2024, the interest rate used to calculate the amount of SMI that can be paid out, known as the Standard Interest Rate (SIR), increased. In the quarter between September 2024 and November 2024, the impact of the increase in the SIR can be seen, where the average (mean) weekly amount increased by 14% (£8) compared to the previous quarter.

In the most recent quarter, UC has a higher weekly average (mean) amount than the overall caseload, at around £80. PC, which is predominantly capped at a lower level, had the lowest average weekly amount of all the qualifying benefits, at around £44. As the working age legacy benefit caseloads become smaller over time, with migration to UC, the average amounts may become quite volatile as small compositional shifts can lead to large swings in the average, so caution is advised in making comparisons from 2025 onwards.  

There are a number of large, backdated SMI payments that appear in the data. The backdated payments are recorded as a single payment, and are not spread across the eligibility period, so are typically larger. Although the mean amount of SMI paid in the latest quarter was £70, the median amount was £64, suggesting backdated payments have had an upwards impact on the mean figure. See the ‘Known Issues’ section of the background and methodology document for further information.

Figure 4: The percentage of the SMI caseload by region since April 2018 

The North West continues to be the region which accounts for the highest proportion of the SMI caseload, with the South East recently overtaking London as the second highest

The North West consistently accounts for the highest proportion of SMI loans in payment (14%), followed by the South East, and London (11%). The North East (5%) has consistently remained the region which accounts for the lowest proportion of SMI loans in payment.  

Scotland, which accounted for 11% of all SMI loans in the quarter up to May 2018, accounted for only 6% in the latest quarter. Wales has consistently accounted for 7% of the caseload.  

4. About these statistics

What is Support for Mortgage Interest?  

Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) aims to protect homeowners receiving a qualifying benefit with mortgages, home improvement loans or loans secured against the property from possession by contributing towards the interest payments on those loans. SMI stopped being a benefit and became an interest-bearing loan on 6 April 2018. Citizens are eligible for SMI if they have an eligible loan and are in receipt of:  

• Income Support (IS) 

• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) 

• income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) 

• Universal Credit (UC) 

• Pension Credit (PC) 

Eligibility periods vary between qualifying benefits. As of April 2023, changes to SMI eligibility rules for UC claimants came into effect, reducing the qualifying period a claimant had to serve from 9 to 3 months and extending SMI to in-work claimants. PC recipients are not required to serve a qualifying period and can receive SMI from the outset of their claim. Further information on eligibility can be found on the Support for Mortgage Interest page.  

SMI is a loan, rather than a benefit, and the statistics only reflect the number of claimants who have accepted the loan offer and received an SMI payment.  

Data limitations 

The statistics are aligned to the latest quarter available for the official statistics on households on UC, however the latest quarter is only provisionally matched for the other qualifying benefits as official data is only available up to the second-last reporting quarter for SMI. As such, the provisional estimates for the breakdown of SMI by JSA, ESA, IS and PC is based on the previous quarter and can lead to revisions once this data becomes available for the next set of statistics. 

For further information, see the background information and methodology document.  

Official Statistics 

These statistics are official statistics. 

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

Release Schedule  

These Official Statistics were released on a quarterly basis up to September 2025, from which point onwards they are released biannually. The latest release includes the period between March 2025 and May 2025. 

The next release in the series is expected to be published in March 2026 and will include the period of June to November 2025.   

Where to find out more 

These statistics are released as part of a series of Support for Mortgage Interest statistics.  

Information about Support for Mortgage Interest, including eligibility requirements and how to claim the loan, can be found on the Support for Mortgage Interest page.  

Enquiries and Feedback 

Media Enquiries 

For media enquiries, please contact the DWP press office.  

Statistics enquiries 

For non-media enquiries on these statistics email: nathan.kelly@dwp.gov.uk 

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