Can he afford to pay his monthly mortgage repayments out of his redundancy money? If he can't keep up the payments and falls into arrears then he is unlikely to get one of the more favourable rates from his lender. But if he can keep up the payments and doesn't fall behind then I don't see why he should be penalised. However, if he is on a Repayment mortgage, he might be better to ask to move to an Interest Only mortgage until he gets another job. I believe he will get only the interest part of the mortgage paid if/when he gets SMI anyway. I hope he manages to keep his head above water and not lose his home tali.