Employed Person's Allowance
Employed Person's Allowance Team
Markwell House
Market Street
Douglas
IM1 2RZ
Telephone:+44 1624 685656 (option 1)
Email:Send Email
Basic qualifying conditions
You may be able to get Employed Person's Allowance (EPA) if you are:
- A lone parent bringing up at least one child or young person you get Child Benefit for
- A member of a couple bringing up at least one child or young person who you or your partner get Child Benefit for
- A member of a couple and you aren’t bringing up a child or young person and either you or your partner (or both of you) is 'severely disabled' or has 'exceptional caring responsibilities' (see below) or
- Someone who is classed as a 'Disabled Worker' (see below)
and you:
- Are in - or treated as being in - 'remunerative work' (see below) and working for at least the minimum number of hours which apply in your circumstances (see 'Minimum work requirements' below)
- And have an income which is below the amount set in law (called the 'applicable amount') that applies in your circumstances
Normally you must satisfy the 'Isle of Man residential condition'. However, in exceptional circumstances you may still get EPA even if you don’t satisfy the Isle of Man residential condition. More information is provided below.
If your partner is in prison - either having been sentenced or is on remand - you can be treated as a lone parent for EPA.
As a lone parent you are automatically eligible to have relevant child care charges included in your entitlement for EPA.
How to claim EPA
Make your claim as soon as you think you may be entitled. If you wait, you may lose money.
If you are a couple, both of you must provide your details when making your claim.
Apply online
To apply online for EPA, you must be registered with Isle of Man Government Online Services.
If you are not yet registered, you can do this through Online Services before setting up your Social Security account.
You will need your National Insurance Number to enrol.
You can upload supporting documents during the online application.
Self-employed claimants
If you are self-employed, you cannot claim or reclaim EPA online. You must apply using Form EPA1. Please see the ‘Self-employed’ section below for information about the additional evidence you will need to provide.
Apply using a paper form
If you cannot apply online, you can download and print Form EPA1 or contact us to request a paper copy (contact details are at the top of this page).
Fill in the form in ink and use CAPITAL LETTERS.
Answer every question that applies to your claim.
If you are a couple and applying using a paper form, both of you must sign it.
Bring or post your completed form and any documents to the address at the top of this page.
Please do not email scanned copies.
We cannot accept scanned images or photocopies.
Evidence
If you do not have all your documents yet, do not delay making your claim. You can provide them later if requested.
With your first claim, you will be asked to provide evidence to support your claim including, but not limited to, proof of your income, savings and housing costs.
For subsequent claims, you will need to provide proof of your income. Evidence supporting other aspects of your claim such as savings or housing costs may be requested from time to time.
Subsequent awards of EPA
If you want to continue claiming EPA after your initial award, you'll need to make another claim using the Online Service, or by completing Form EPA1 if you are self-employed.
You can submit a reclaim from 14 days before your last award of EPA ends, and reclaims must be submitted no more than 14 days after the end of the previous claim.
You'll need to provide proof of your income as above.
For more information
Please read leaflet EPA5 - A Guide to Employed Person’s Allowance before you start your claim.
Self-employed
Evidence of registration
If you or your partner are self‑employed, you must include one of the following with your completed claim form and required documents:
- L431 ‘Self‑employed acceptance letter’, or
- L431B ‘Provisional self‑employed acceptance letter’
These letters are issued by the Income Tax Division and confirm that the self-employment is registered.
If the self‑employment has not yet been registered, an R133 ‘Commencement of self‑employment’ form must be completed and returned to the Income Tax Division. This can be found on the Income Tax Division’s Forms page under Self‑Employed Forms.
Business accounts and records
Reporting period
You must provide the latest business accounts for the self-employment (yours or your partner’s) covering the last 6 complete months up to the month before you submit your claim.
Example: If you submit a claim in July, the records must cover 1 January to 30 June.
If self-employment started within the last 6 months
If the self‑employment began fewer than 6 complete months ago, provide business records from the date the self‑employment started up to the end of the last complete month before you submit your claim.
If the self-employment began less than 1 month ago, provide a reasoned estimate of expected income and expenses for the next 6 months.
If accounting software is not used
If you or your partner don't use accounting software or dedicated accounting books, you may download and complete the Self-Employed Profit/Loss Records For Employed Person's Allowance spreadsheet, which includes a 6-month log of income and expenditure. Additional information may be requested if needed.
Summary of income and expenditure
You are also required to complete the income and expenditure statement in Part 6 of the EPA1 claim form which summarises income and expenditure for the required reporting period.
If you and your partner are self employed, or if you need to provide income and expenditure details for more than one business, you must provide additional summaries of the income and expenditure for those businesses covering the same period that you tell us about in Part 6 of the EPA1 claim form by completing Form SE1 - Additional income and expenditure statement, which you can download and print from our website or get from any Social Security office.
Subcontractors
If you or your partner are subcontractors, you must also provide completed C11s with your application.
If you pay for child care
Please download and print a claim form EPA4, available via downloadable documents, or you can get one from a Social Security office.
Awards and payments
Once we receive all the information that we have asked for, new claims are processed within 7 to 10 working days and reclaims are processed within 5 to 7 working days.
EPA is awarded for a period of between 4 and 26 weeks at a time.
It is normally awarded from the Tuesday following the day we receive your claim, unless we receive it on a Tuesday in which case EPA will be awarded from that day.
Payments will usually be made into your bank account or online account.
Normally we pay EPA every 2 weeks, but you can choose to be paid weekly.
Changes in your circumstances
Once an EPA award has been made the amount payable will normally stay the same throughout the whole award period, even if your work hours or rate of pay changes during the award period.
Please read leaflet EPA5 - A Guide to Employed Person’s Allowance for details of changes of circumstances you must report to us straightaway.
Isle of Man residential condition
You will satisfy the Isle of Man residential condition if you:
- Were born in the Isle of Man (IoM)
- Have been ordinarily resident in the IoM for a continuous period of at least 5 years at any time
- Have been ordinarily resident in the IoM for 3 or more periods which, when added together, amount to at least 10 years
Or you are:
- The husband, wife or civil partner of a person who satisfies any of the conditions listed above
- The widow, widower or surviving civil partner of a person who satisfied any of the conditions listed above
- The former husband, wife or civil partner of a person who satisfies any of the conditions listed above
- The child of a person who satisfies any of the conditions listed above and that person was (or their spouse or civil partner was) serving in HM Forces when you were born
If you don’t satisfy the Isle of Man residential condition but you do meet the other qualifying conditions for EPA, then you may still be entitled to EPA if you can show that it would be exceptionally harsh or oppressive to deny you EPA. Please complete and send in the Form A17 ‘Isle of Man Residential Qualification’ if you think this applies to you.
Disabled workers
You qualify as a 'Disabled worker' if you:
- Are getting, or you recently stopped getting, certain incapacity or disability benefits and
- Have an illness or disability which puts you at a disadvantage in getting a job
For more information see the relevant section in the leaflet EPA5 - A Guide to Employed Person’s Allowance.
Remunerative work
To qualify for EPA you or your partner (if you have one) must:
- Be in a job that is expected to last for at least 5 weeks when you make your claim, and
- Be working for at least the number of hours applicable in your circumstances as set out in the 'Minimum work requirements' section.
You may also qualify for EPA if, immediately following a previous award for EPA, rather than being in paid work you are off work due to illness or incapacity and your employer continues to pay you your normal earnings (ignoring any deductions they may make from your wages for any Incapacity Benefit you get from Social Security)
But you can only qualify for EPA in the above circumstance for a maximum period of 26 weeks in any 52 week period.
You may also qualify for EPA if, immediately following a previous award of EPA, rather than being in paid work you are either:
- On maternity leave and getting Maternity Allowance from Social Security
- On adoption leave and getting Adoption Allowance or
- Self-employed, but you can’t work because you’re pregnant or have recently given birth
Minimum work requirements
The minimum work requirements for EPA are as set out below.
| Categories of people | Minimum work requirements |
|---|---|
| Lone parents | |
| Standard case (i.e. none of the exceptions mentioned below apply) |
|
| Exceptions | |
| Lone parent who has exceptional caring responsibilities | 16 hours per week |
| Lone parent whose child or young person is disabled, has been incapacitated for at least 30 days or is at least 6 months pregnant | 16 hours per week |
| Lone parent who is receiving a bereavement support payment | 16 hours per week |
| Couples with children | |
| Standard case (i.e. none of the exceptions mentioned below apply) |
Note: Hours spent in work-related training or education by either partner may be counted towards meeting the minimum work requirement, as if they are hours spent in work. However, one member of the couple must actually be working for at least 30 hours a week. |
| Exceptions | |
| One partner is disabled, has been incapacitated for at least 30 days, is at least 6 months pregnant or is in work-related training or work-related education | 32 hours per week If both partners work their total work hours will be taken into account. Note: Hours spent in work-related training or education by either partner may be counted towards meeting the minimum work requirement, as if they are hours spent in work. However, one member of the couple must actually be working for at least 30 hours a week. |
| A child or young person in the family is disabled, has been incapacitated for at least 30 days or is at least 6 months pregnant | 32 hours per week If both partners work their total work hours will be taken into account. Note: Hours spent in work-related training or education by either partner may be counted towards meeting the minimum work requirement, as if they are hours spent in work. However, one member of the couple must actually be working for at least 30 hours a week. |
| One or both partners is receiving a bereavement support payment | 32 hours per week If both partners work their total work hours will be taken into account. Note: Hours spent in work-related training or education by either partner may be counted towards meeting the minimum work requirement, as if they are hours spent in work. However, one member of the couple must actually be working for at least 30 hours a week. |
| One or both partners have exceptional caring responsibilities | 16 hours per week |
| One or both partners is a severely disabled person | 16 hours per week |
| Couples without children | |
| One or both partners have exceptional caring responsibilities | 16 hours per week |
| One or both partners is a severely disabled person | 16 hours per week |
| Disabled worker | |
| Person who qualifies as a 'Disabled Worker' | 16 hours per week |
Trainees
A trainee is treated as engaged in remunerative work.
A person is not a trainee if they have been a trainee for the preceding 365 days.
A person is a trainee if:
- In the week in which they make their claim for EPA they are undergoing a course of training or instruction which requires their attendance for at least the minimum hours or the minimum total combined hours which they would be required to work to meet the minimum work requirement in their particular case if they were not a trainee
- They are entitled to be paid a training allowance by the Treasury in respect of their attendance on their course
- In the week preceding the week in which their course started (or, if that course was immediately preceded by one or more such courses, prior to the start of the earlier course or the earliest of those courses) they:
- Actually met (on average) the minimum work requirement, and
- Had been awarded EPA
Exceptional caring responsibilities
A person has 'exceptional caring responsibilities' if they are either:
- Getting Carer’s Allowance, or
- Not getting Carer’s Allowance but are regularly and substantially engaged in caring for a severely disabled person
Severely disabled person
A 'severely disabled person' is a person who is either:
- Getting the highest or middle-rate care component of Disability Living Allowance
- Getting an Attendance Allowance
- Claiming Disability Living Allowance and would be entitled to the care component of that allowance at the highest or middle rate if the 3 months qualifying period for that benefit didn’t apply
- Claiming Attendance Allowance and would be entitled to that allowance if the 6 months qualifying period for that benefit didn’t apply
