Jared Laureles
The newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, September 12, 2024, p. 15
The National Workers’ Housing Fund Institute (Infonavit) launched the Nivela tu Pago program to alleviate the financial burden of at least 300,000 people who have a current loan and whose monthly payment exceeds 35 percent of their salary.
Carlos Martínez Velázquez, director of the institute, stressed that it is the first scheme in the financial system aimed at beneficiaries who are up to date with their payments and have an active employment relationship. Usually, he added, restructuring programs apply when people stop paying or do not have a job.
At a press conference, he explained that the plan responds to the needs of workers who had a higher salary when they took out their mortgage, but who later changed jobs and their salary could have decreased, while the monthly financing payment remained above 35 percent.
The program “will be very beneficial, because it means returning your monthly payment to a fair 30 percent of what you owe… this program helps you for a year to have more income available for any eventuality you may have had,” he said.
He explained that there will be fixed temporary discounts for 12 months ranging from 25 to 75 percent, depending on the beneficiary’s income, and that the institute will pay the difference so that the worker remains current.
The scheme can be extended for one more year, if requested by the beneficiary, and can be requested three times throughout the life of the loan. In addition, it applies to both loans denominated in minimum wage times and in pesos.
He reported that the institute detected 5,000 cases in which workers had up to 90 percent of their salary deducted from their payroll. It is very unfair for the worker, because then he is left with 10 percent of the rest.
To join the plan, borrowers must not have more than 12 outstanding monthly payments; if they have an active extension, they must first request its cancellation.
(With information from Alexia Villaseñor)
