United Trust Bank has tightened its criteria for residential and second-payment mortgages to provide greater flexibility around benefit income, later life loans and automatic valuations.
The lender will now allow a wider range of benefits as part of its housing affordability checks.
Following the update, it will now take into account Universal Credit, Child Benefit, Pension Credit, Personal Independence Allowance (PIP), Employment Support Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Nursing Allowance, Care Allowance, Maternity Allowance, Child Tax Credit and Working Families Tax Credit.
UTB says the new approach to late-life lending offers greater flexibility and clarity when the mortgage term extends beyond the planned retirement age or age 70.
It has removed the requirement for applicants aged 75 or over at the start of their mortgage term to seek independent legal advice, which it says will save them time and money.
For second charge requests, the company has updated its policy to allow more deals to proceed based on automated valuations.
UTB commercial mortgage director Andrew Ferguson said: “These latest changes are all about giving brokers more options to bring specialist business to UTB when applicants are relying on benefits or borrowing for their pension, two growing customer sectors.
“When you add these to the improvements announced over the last ten days, you can see that we have transformed much of our criteria for mortgages and two-part loans and given brokers even more reasons to choose UTB for its speed, flexibility, simplicity and certainty.”