§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 24 January,Official Report, column 101, what are the criteria and rules applying to the house purchase advances, including the circumstances under which advances can be written off.
§ Mr. AitkenAdvances of salary are only available to staff who are moving home at public expense following a compulsory transfer.
Advances for house purchase of up to six months gross pay may be made available to staff who require financial assistance to complete the purchase of a property at the new place of duty. Applicants must first reinvest any net equity from the sale of their former home and obtain the maximum mortgage from commercial sources. Advances will not be granted to assist staff to improve their standard of housing.
Advances of up to 12 months pay may also be made exceptionally to transferring staff who are unable to redeem their outstanding mortgage from the sale proceeds of their former home. Applicants must first satisfy the Department that they have no other means of meeting the debt, for example through use of savings or assistance offered by some building societies and banks.
Additionally, advances of up to 12 months pay have been made in the past to assist staff who, having taken our commercial bridging loans to help them transfer, saw the value of their properties fall below the level of the bridging loans, as a result of the downturn in the property market in the late 1980s.
Recovery of the advance is normally made from salary. When employment ceases full repayment of any outstanding advance would be sought. Write-off of any outstanding advance where employment has ceased would be considered only where the individual cannot be traced or the expenditure required to pursue recovery by legal means is likely to exceed the value of the sum recovered.