The UK Mortgage Prisoners group is seeking charity status and plans to start a crowdfunding campaign to help families in financial trouble on Wednesday 12 August.

It says that more people than ever are contacting group, with Covid-19 being a “devastating addition to lives already on the brink of ruin”.

The group has also criticised the FCA, saying that while some of the regulator’s comments on the mortgage prisoner issue made in late July and the proposal to extend the capital repayment period for interest-only and part-and-part mortgages maturing soon to 31 October 2021 are welcome, the FCA’s proposals do not go far enough.

Alongside this, the group explains that in conflating inactive and unregulated lenders, the FCA disguises the harm done to borrowers of the latter group.

“This virtue signalling must stop”

The group also says that the modified affordability assessments detailed by the FCA last October do not help prisoners who lack a repayment vehicle.

“This virtue signalling must stop,” says the group. “Our members need capped standard variable rates, access to the competitive market, and for their homes to stop being sold to these vulture funds.

“Our members are not an add-on to general mortgage market conditions from the current financial crisis; they are the ones left behind from the economic crisis of 2008 and they deserve more than a PR salute,” the group concludes.