Work would like me to take a "pay holiday", in order to this I'd have to stop paying my mortgage for this time. Looks like I could take a payment holiday there easily enough (below) but I don't want to unless it is absolutely necessary. I could go to interest only for a year, and then just overpay when I can. My mortgage payments are not huge. while it is the biggest single regular outgoing, even getting rid of that doesn't reduce my outgoings enough for me to do something crazy like take extended time off. I have three voluntary options:
The temporary pay cut combined with the mortgage change could work, but is it too much of a risk for me? I hope enough people who don't have three other people to support can go for this option, and combined with the measures the government announced, that will be enough to keep work going for long enough.
Stopping eating and drinking would fix that! I guess we're not going to any restaurants for a while.
I did go to the Inn Doors yesterday. Will that prove to be the last time? There were only a few very locals in there, other neighbouring businesses drowning their sorrows. It seems like the measures announced yesterday to save businesses won't really apply to them. Pausing business rates for pubs sounded good, but micropubs don't pay business rates anyway apparently. They don't want to take on more debt right now, they'd be as well to just shut down. I also learned there that the new place next door seems to be not quite open yet (though sounds like it would be too meaty for me anyway), Loaf has closed, and Comemos was closed coincidentally only for refurbishment. Ti Luck is apparently still open. Also strangely they have a pool table in there. It has been shut every time I've walked past recently.
My work health check today was cancelled. It was hard to get a Sainsburys slot for shopping delivery at the weekend but we got the most expensive 8am one. They're limiting sales of all food, nice. Tell me again there was no need for stockpiling food and it will all be fine?
It's amazing to think all the things we thought were OTT paranoid fears post-brexit have absolutely come true, not because of brexit but because of this virus.
Now parkrun is cancelled too. The boys are still due at the dentist this afternoon and afaik my operation is still on but I will phone and check.
We have 1950 coronavirus cases in the UK, with 71 deaths so far and 65 recoveries. All the usual caveats apply, no-one is actually being tested. Also the deaths should probably be reported as "people who had coronavirus and then died" they probably didn't die of coronavirus.
You may be eligible to apply for a payment holiday if:
- It's been at least 12 months since you took out your mortgage with us
- You’ve not taken any additional borrowing in the last six months
- The amount you owe does not exceed 75% of our latest valuation of your property
- You've not had previous payment holidays totalling six months or taken one in the last three years
- You live in the property and it’s your main residence
- Your property isn’t owned jointly under a shared ownership scheme, for example with a local authority
- You don’t receive support from the Department of Work and Pensions towards your mortgage payments
- On a joint mortgage, all parties are in agreement to the payment holiday
- Your mortgage payments are up to date and have been for at least 12 months
- If you have an application in progress for something else, such as a new interest rate deal, you can’t apply for a payment holiday at the same time.
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in Hythe near Folkestone. Wed + dad to two, I am a full stack web engineer, + I do js / nodejs, some ruby, other languages etc. I like pubs, parkrun, eating, home-automation + other diy jiggery-pokery, history, family tree stuff, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.