Exceptional Needs Grants and Budgeting Loans

These payments can help you meet the cost of certain exceptional needs.

In most circumstances you or your partner must be getting either Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance to qualify for an Exceptional Needs Grant or a Budgeting Loan.

But if you’re getting Employed Person’s Allowance you may be able to get a grant for:

  • items which are necessary for you to take up or continue in work as an employed person, including basic tools, working clothes and footwear, driving licence fees (but not fees for driving tuition) and any fees for a medical examination required by a prospective employer or

  • to meet your living expenses whilst you’re waiting for:

    • your first payment of salary or wages on starting or resuming work or

    • your first payment from your employer following the employer changing your pay period to a longer one (for example, from a weekly wage to a monthly salary)

If you’re getting Employed Person’s Allowance you may also get a loan towards:

  • the cost of furniture and household equipment if you have suffered a disaster at your home, such as a fire or a flood

  • the cost of reusable cotton nappies or

  • cash which you have lost, had stolen or which has been unintentionally destroyed

Exceptional Needs Grants don’t have to be paid back. Budgeting Loans have to be paid back by making payments of at least £12.50 per week.

You cannot qualify for an Exceptional Needs Grant or a Budgeting Loan for certain items if you or your partner are expected to take up work within 28 days of making a claim.

You cannot qualify for an Exceptional Needs Grant or a Budgeting Loan for any item if you’re:

  • a person affected by a trade dispute (for example, you’re absent from work on strike)
  • a hospital in-patient
  • a member of a religious order or
  • a prisoner

You cannot qualify for an Exceptional Needs Grant or a Budgeting Loan for an item if:

  • an Exceptional Needs Grant or a Budgeting Loan has already been paid to you for the same item (unless your circumstances have changed) or

  • the need for the item arises outside the Isle of Man

The claim form BLG1 – Claim for Budgeting Loans and Exceptional Needs Grants can be downloaded from the Downloadable Documents on this page.

More information about Exceptional Needs Grants is on the Exceptional Needs Grants page.

More information about Budgeting Loans is on the Budgeting Loans page.