If you’ve been looking into reverse mortgages or home equity loans, you may have come across the government’s Home Equity Access Scheme (HEAS), administered by Centrelink. This was previously known as the Pension Loans Scheme (PLS).
While there is a lot of information available on the Services Australia website about HEAS, it can be difficult to find someone to talk to about the ins and outs of the scheme and answer all those nitty gritty questions you might have.
Centrelink does recommend you seek legal and financial advice before entering into a HEAS arrangement. Unfortunately, many advisers are not fully aware of the complexities of the scheme and so may be reluctant to discuss or recommend it. Those that are experts may also have an interest in other equity schemes so be sure any advice you are getting is independent.
One of the frustrations many people find is that the application asks you to confirm that you have read and understood the terms and conditions, before you’ve been able to talk to a staff member who fully understands the details of the scheme.
For the purposes of this article, I’m going to assume you have some knowledge of the program and are considering lodging an application.
Learn more about how the Home Equity Access Scheme works.
Getting the answers you need
The experts in this area are a small number of Centrelink staff specially trained in all the particulars of HEAS.
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