General Conditions For Assessing Hardship

It would be expected generally that:

• the combined gross income of the applicant and spouse is less than the Average Weekly Earnings for an adult in full time employment in the State in which the home is located;
• where an applicant and spouse hold assets above the equivalent of the annual amount of the Department of Social Security pension for a single person (rounded to the next $100) plus 20% of that amount for each dependant, and provided that the assets could reasonably be expected to be sold or realised, they will utilise that excess towards:

• reducing the ratio of commitments on the home; or
• repaying the mortgage or assisting with the essential repairs;

• there are no other avenues through which the commitments on the home to income ratio could be reduced, such as negotiating with the lender for a reduction in the instalment by extending the repayment term or by other means; and

• the applicant has been unsuccessful in obtaining alternative financing;

• in the case of instalment relief, the amount which an applicant and spouse is expected to contribute towards the commitments on the home is 20% of their combined gross income.