5 December 2025
5 December 2025
This factsheet provides an overview of additional payments and a guide on how to apply for them. Pregnant women and parents with dependent children are entitled to receive some extra payments to their support package. People with an ‘exceptional’ need for additional support can also apply for extra payments. The Home Office does not provide additional payments to people on schedule 10 support. Updated December 2025
If you still have questions or need further information and advice after reading this factsheet, please contact our advice line on 020 3716 0283. It is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 2pm to 4pm. Please note, this is a ‘second-tier’ advice line. This means that we can give advice to other advice workers but not to individual clients.
Section 95 support is provided to destitute asylum-seekers and their dependents whose claims for asylum have not yet been fully determined. More information on section 95 support and the basic rates please see Factsheet 1.
On top of the weekly section 95 cash allowance, in certain circumstances, people can receive additional payments. Like the main payment, these are provided through the ASPEN card, the debit card provided to people on asylum support. Only one card is distributed per family unit and it is issued to the main recipient of support.
The Home Office’s published policy on additional section 95 payments [Asylum Support policy bulletins instructions] does not reflect current Home Office casework practices. We have tried our best in this factsheet to provide a current reflection of how the system for applying for this support works.
Pregnant people in receipt of section 95 support are entitled to a one-off maternity grant of £300This payment is provided under Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (IAA99), s96(2). The amount paid in maternity grant is a matter of policy.
The policy explains that people on section 98 support Section 98 support is emergency support provided to asylum seekers pending a full assessment of their application for section 95 support can also be provided with a maternity grant. But in practice, we understand that this would almost never be given as section 95 applications are normally processed first. The provision of a maternity grant would also be problematic in section 98 cases as payments are made on ASPEN cards and these are only issued once the person is on section 95 support.
Requests for maternity grants need to be made via Migrant Help.
The person will need to submit copies of:
Migrant Help will accept copies of documents but if original documents are submitted to them, these are copied and returned to the sender by recorded delivery. They are not sent onwards to the Home Office.
For the duration of their pregnancy a person on section 95 support is entitled to receive £5.25 extra a weekAsylum Support Regulations 2000 SI No 704 (AS Regs), reg 10A(1). Following litigationHA & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department see also Report on review of weekly allowances paid to asylum seekers and failed asylum seekers, this payment is available to pregnant people living in all asylum support accommodation settings (ie in self-catered housing or full-board sites like hotels).
Applications are made through Migrant Help:
The applicant needs to provide both sides of the MAT B1 certificate (see above) or a letter from their midwife or GP confirming the pregnancy. As with maternity grants, Migrant Help will accept copies of documents.
There are two levels of extra payments for children up to 3 years, on top of the standard weekly allowance for each child:
As with pregnancy payments, this is available to children living in all asylum support accommodation settings (ie in self-catered housing or full board sites like hotels).
Parents already on asylum support must notify the Home Office of the birth of a child within six weeks of their birth. This is a condition of support and a legal requirement This condition is usually notified to the person in the letter granting them support. Note also that it is a criminal offence to fail to notify the Home Office of a relevant change of circumstances without a reasonable excuse (s105 IAA99) which includes the birth of a child (reg 15, Asylum Support Regulations 2000). They should do this via Migrant Help who will complete a Change of Circumstance form (add a dependant). They should provide a full birth certificate or medical evidence that shows the birth occurred. If other medical evidence is provided, a full birth certificate will still need to be submitted in a reasonable amount of timeLegally, all births must be registered within 42 days (or 21 days in Scotland). It would therefore be prudent to send the full birth certificate as soon as possible after the registration. We would suggest, no later than 49 days after the birth (or 28 in Scotland).
Support will be backdated to the day the child was born, as long as the notification is made within 14 days of birth. Additional payments for support are provided automatically once the Home Office has added the child to the family’s support.
The children of people applying for support are added to the ASF1 as part of the application process. No additional evidence is required if the child is a dependant on their parent’s asylum application. But if the child is born in the UK, Migrant Help will request a full birth certificate. Payments will be automatically added once support is granted
The Home Office can provide extra section 95 payments to meet an essential living need that is not already adequately covered by the standard asylum support payments and cannot be met by any other source of supportThese are provided under s96(2) IAA99.
The policy can be found here and the relevant application form (ASF2) can be found here. The request must be made via Migrant Help.
The policy explains what is meant by essential living need, but in summary these are the basic items such as food, toiletries, clothes etc that are covered by the section 95 payments.
Only applicant with exceptional circumstances will qualify. They must either have an essential need that is different from the need of other people claiming asylum generally or be the same as the need of others but more costly for them to meet because of their particular circumstances.
The policy provides non-exhaustive examples of circumstances where payments might be authorised:
The policy also recognises that in some circumstances, standard and additional payments made to pregnant people and young children may not be sufficient, so they will consider applications from these groups.
The policy notes the Home Office can agree to meet the exceptional living need through ‘in kind’ support, as well changes to accommodation (or other support) arrangements. But otherwise, payments are made to the applicant’s ASPEN card
Section 4 support is provided to some groups of refused asylum-seekers who meet a narrow set of criteria. For a fuller explanation of the criteria for section 4 see Factsheet 2.
Additional payments under section 4 support are made in similar circumstances to the payments available under section 95 supportSection 4 payments are made under the Immigration and Asylum (Provision of Services or Facilities) Regulations 2007, as amended. However, under section 4 support there are some payments, such as a clothing allowance for children under 16 years, and help with travel costs which are not available under section 95 support.
Like the section 4 main payment, additional payments are provided through the ASPEN card, the debit card provided to people on asylum support. Only one card is distributed per family unit and it is issued to the main recipient of support.
Applications can be done through Migrant Help and by completing the specific additional payments form which can be found here. The relevant Home Office policy is found here.
Migrant Help will accept copies of documents but if original documents are submitted to them, these are copied and returned to the sender by recorded delivery. They are not sent onwards to the Home Office.
The maternity grant is worth £300 per baby.
A person can apply eleven weeks before the expected due date (EDD) or up to six months after the birth, but the grant won’t be awarded if the person has already received a maternity grant under section 95 support for the same baby.
Alongside the additional payments application form, the person should supply (unless the Home Office already has this evidence):
For the duration of her pregnancy a person on section 4 support is entitled to receive £5.25 extra a week. The application must be made by the person who is pregnant regardless of whether they are the main recipient of support (or applicant) or a dependant. The form needs to be accompanied by the MATB1 or a letter from her midwife or GP confirming the pregnancy alongside the application form.
Parents in receipt of section 4 can also claim additional weekly payments of £9.50 a week for babies under 12 months and £5.25 a week for children between 1 and 3 years.
For people already on support, payments are added to the ASPEN card once the Home Office has been notified of the birth of a child. Migrant Help do this through a Change of Circumstance (add a dependant) form and will also complete the additional payments form.
As with section 95 support, the applicant should provide a full birth certificate or medical evidence that shows the birth occurred. If other medical evidence is provided, a full birth certificate will still need to be submitted in a reasonable amount of timeLegally, all births must be registered within 42 days (21 days in Scotland). It would therefore be prudent to send the full birth certificate as soon as possible after the registration. We would suggest, no later than 49 days after the birth (or 28 in Scotland). As with section 95 support, payments can be backdated to the date that the child was born, if the form is completed within 14 days of birth.
For people who are applying for support for the first time, the information is added to the ASF1. Migrant Help will request a full birth certificate if the child was born in the UK
Parents in receipt of section 4 support can claim a clothing allowance of £5 per week for dependent children under the age of 16 years. These are given in addition to the payments received for children under 3 years.
The Additional Facilities regulations includes payments to cover the travel costs to obtain a child’s full birth certificate and the costs of the long birth certificate. However, following the 2023 review of asylum support rates which saw the section 4 maternity grant increase by £50 to £300, the Home Office announced these applications would not normally be granted.
As with section 95 support, people supported under section 4 support can apply for additional support for an exceptional essential living need. It is necessary to complete the same application form as for the other section 4 payments above. The section 4 policy specifically deals with applications for travel, making phone calls and for stationary or postage. But for any other type of application, it may be useful to read the guidance on section 95 exceptional payments, as the Home Office are likely to apply the same reasoning to applications for exceptional payments made under section 4.
There is no right of appeal against a decision to refuse to provide additional payments. Unsuccessful applicants can ask the Home Office to reconsider their decision, provide additional evidence as required and explore legal challenges in the form of Judicial Review