Employed Person's Allowance

What is Employed Person's Allowance (EPA)?

EPA is a benefit available to families who are treated as being in remunerative work, for a certain number of qualifying hours per week, dependant on their circumstances, and have a low income, that is an income which is below the prescribed amount.

Alternatively, EPA is available to single persons, or members of a couple who:

• have an illness or disability that puts them at a disadvantage in getting a job
• are starting to work, or are already working, for at least 16 hours per week
• are receiving certain incapacity or disability benefits, or have been at a certain point in the past

Who can get EPA?

For more information on the qualifying conditions for EPA, please download leaflet EPA5 A Guide to Employed Person’s Allowance.

Are you or your partner residentially qualified?

To qualify for EPA, you or your partner (if you have one) must be able to satisfy a residential qualification, 

You will satisfy the IOM residential condition if –

• You were born in the IOM;
• You have been ordinarily resident in the IOM for a continuous period of at least 5 years; or
• You have been ordinarily resident in the IOM for a number of periods which, when added together, amount to at least 10 years.  

You can satisfy the IOM residential condition in other circumstances too, for example if you are married to or are a civil partner of a person who satisfies any of the above.

Notwithstanding the above, a person is not entitled to EPA if he is a person who is subject to immigration control. In the case of a couple, EPA might be payable if only one member of that couple is a person subject to immigration control.

How EPA is paid?

EPA is awarded for a period of between 4 and 26 weeks and normally paid from the Tuesday following the day we receive your claim. If we receive it on a Tuesday, it will normally be awarded from that day.

EPA is paid either:

• by weekly collection on a MiCard at a Post Office of your choice (usually about 2 weeks after the claim), or
• fortnightly in arrears by direct credit into a bank or building society account

Use the claim form EPA1 which can be downloaded or requested from and returned to:

Please include your payslips (if paid weekly the last 5 wage slips and if paid monthly/4 weekly/fortnightly the last 2 wage slips), up to date proof of rent/mortgage and bank statements for all your accounts for the last 3 months to date with a claim using form EPA1.

If you have child care charges please download and complete form EPA4.

Form EPA7 should only be used if you are already in receipt of EPA and your claim is within 2 weeks of ending.

You only need you to provide wage slips when using the EPA7 reclaim form.

In all cases the claim forms should be downloaded, completed and returned to the above address (we will not accept scanned copies).

For further information on EPA please see the downloadable documents.