Crisis Loans

If you need financial help with an emergency or disaster you may be able to get a Crisis Loan; the interest-free loan from the Social Fund that you pay back.

Who is eligible?

You can apply for a Crisis Loan if all the following apply:

you're aged 16 or over
you don't have enough money to meet your (or your family's) immediate short term needs in an emergency or as the result of a disaster
without the loan there will be a serious damage or risk to your (or your family's) health or safety

or if all the following apply: you're aged 16 or over and you've:

you're aged 16 or over; and
you’ve been awarded a Community Care Grant because you're moving out of institutional or residential accommodation and don't have enough money to pay advance rent to a non-local authority landlord
Community Care grants

How much do you get?

There is no set amount of Crisis Loan. The amount you may be able to borrow will depend on:

your individual circumstances
any savings you have
whether or not you have borrowed from the Social Fund before

How it's paid

You will normally give you a cheque in your name. You can cash it at a post office or pay it into an account.

How do you repay it?

If you qualify for a Crisis Loan you'll need to agree how you are going to pay it back.

An adviser at your Social Security or Jobs and Benefits office will talk you through it and agree a repayment plan with you that you can afford. If you're on benefit, the loan is normally repaid weekly out of your benefit payments.

You don't have to pay interest on a Crisis Loan, which means you only repay the amount you borrowed.

Contact your local Social Security or Jobs and Benefits office

Effect on other benefits

A Crisis Loan does not count as income and will not affect other benefits you are getting.

How to apply

To apply for a Crisis Loan contact your local Social Security or Jobs and Benefits office.

Contact your local Social Security or Jobs and Benefits office

Use the Crisis Loans Claim Line

Please note that if your application is in respect of living expenses other than alignement to benefit or wages e.g. you have lost your money, and it is your 3rd such application within a 12 month period, you may be required to attend a face to face interview at your local Social Security or Jobs & Benefits office in order to have your application taken.

You can also use the Crisis Loan Claim line. A Social Fund officer will process your claim over the telephone.

Crisis Loans Claim Line

Download a Crisis Loan form to print off and complete

Or you can download the Crisis Loan's form from the Department for Social Development website. The form comes with notes to help you fill it in and send the completed form.

How to request a review

If you're unhappy with a Crisis Loan decision you have the right to ask for a review. You must write to your Social Security or Jobs and Benefits office within 28 days of the decision, explaining why you think the decision was wrong and ask for it to be reviewed.

If you're still unhappy with the outcome, you can ask for a further review by a Social Fund Inspector. The Inspectors are independent from the Department for Social Development.

The review process is quick and simple, and should take no longer than 12 working days in the case of items, and no longer than 24 hours in the case of living expenses .

You can download the leaflet and claim form, 'How to ask for an independent review' from the Office of the Social Fund Commissioner website.