According to new research from The Mortgage Lender, a quarter of self-employed homeowners in the UK deferred their mortgage payments during the Covid-19 pandemic, with 16 per cent taking a three-month break and 9 per cent deferring payments for four to six months.
The survey, conducted among 1,000 self-employed homeowners in March, also found that around a third had increased their unsecured debts during the pandemic. According to the research, unsecured debts, such as credit cards and overdrafts, increased by £2,312 on average among self-employed homeowners over the last year.
Due to the financial impact of the pandemic on self-employed workers, 55 per cent of respondents to the survey said that they felt they would be unable to borrow what they currently owe on their mortgage, based on their previous year’s earnings.
The Mortgage Lender added that close to 60 per cent of those surveyed said that they felt their experience of the Covid-19 pandemic was worse than that of an employed person, with the majority claiming they received no government financial support during the crisis.
Steve Griffiths, Sales and Product Director at The Mortgage Lender, said: “The last year has been hard for everyone but the self-employed feel as if they have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic increasing personal debt and deferring mortgage payments just to get by.
Griffiths added: “Nevertheless, there are millions of self-employed people contributing to the economy and the economic recovery. It’s vitally important there is a thriving, competitive specialist mortgage sector that is able to provide criteria and products that meet the needs of this segment of the population to prevent them from being locked out of the housing market or trapped in a home that no longer meets their needs.”
