Mortgage prisoners face paying sky-high home loan rates of more than 9%, according to campaigners.
This week has seen a week of turmoil in the home loan market.
This week mortgage lenders began pulling deals, with around 3,000 removed from sale. Others are hiking rates.
House sales are also starting to fall through as lenders pull mortgage offers in reaction to the mini-Budget.
But mortgage prisoners are in a far worse situation than almost all other homeowners.
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These mortgage prisoners are stuck on a home loan they cannot afford to leave.
Most took out home loans in the days of easy credit before the financial crash of 2007.
Afterwards, the financial regulator brought in tougher financial hurdles to taking out a mortgage.
These backfired on many existing homeowners, who found they could not meet the new rules and remortgage when their deals ended.
This left them stuck paying inflated payments on their lenders' standard variable rates - which kick in after a mortgage term ends.
Now Rachel Neale, lead campaigner of the UK Mortgage Prisoners group, says the government needs to step in to help.
In a letter sent this week, Neale said mortgage prisoners have been paying rates of between 4% and 9% for more than a decade.
She added: “Now that the wider public is set to have interest rates raised to those kinds of percentage rates the media, along with economists are raising an outcry of unfairness, asking how people will pay their mortgages and be able to live and buy food and pay their other bills.
"Surely you can see the irony here.”
A big part of the issue is that many mortgage prisoners' home loans have been bought up by non-lenders, Neale said.
These firms do not let customers switch or take out more suitable mortgage deals.
Defaqto consumer banking expert Katie Brain said: " Within the space of a week we have seen some dramatic changes within the mortgage market.
"Nearly 3,000 mortgage products have been withdrawn, and over 20 providers have withdrawn their entire fixed rate mortgage range.
"What products are left are changing at a rapid pace, lenders seem to be really unsure of what to offer and what price with so many changes in the money markets at the moment."
Hargreaves Lansdown senior personal finance analyst Sarah Coles said: "If you have six months or less to run on a fixed rate mortgage it’s worth shopping around for a new rate, because you can lock in a deal up to six months in advance and protect yourself from rises.
"Given the market turmoil, you may want to talk to a mortgage broker who is across the market and can track down the best rates."
