The Personal Finance Society (PFS), the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA) and the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) have all given their support to SHIP’s campaign to clarify the relationship between equity release and state benefits.

As part of this initiative, SHIP launched a &lta href=&quothttp://www.logiforms.com/formdata/user_forms/14397_8940992/76483/&quot&gtquestionnaire&lt/a&gt last month to gather as much information as possible from advisers on their opinions and experiences of this issue.

SHIP is calling on all advisers to add their voices to the campaign which was launched as a result of inconsistent and conflicting advice from the DWP that deters advisers, and therefore customers, from embracing the equity release market fully. SHIP aims for clear definitive guidelines to be published for all, including DWP staff, advisers and the FSA.

Fay Goddard, chief executive of the Personal Finance Society, said: “The issues around the interaction of state benefits and equity release are complicated. It’s vital that intermediaries feel confident in the advice they give and that consumers feel assured of the quality of advice they receive so we’re pleased to support this campaign as it aims to provide intermediaries with a clear understanding of when equity release might be appropriately recommended to their clients.””