Driving licence loan

If you are unemployed and fulfil certain conditions you can borrow money from CSN for the purpose of obtaining a category B driving licence. With a driving licence, you may find it easier to get a job. Here you can find information on payments, conditions and how you can apply for a loan.

What is a driving licence loan?
Amount you can borrow
Requirements and conditions
How to apply
You have to request your payment
Register the account in Swedbank’s account register
For how long is the decision valid?
Repaying the loan
Appealing against a decision by CSN
Frequently asked questions

Information in English and other languages

We provide information about our various forms of grants and loans in different languages. Quite a lot of information has been translated into English. The most important information has been translated into other languages, such as Arabic, Spanish, etc.

What is a driving licence loan?

Play video: Driving licence loan

Playtime: 02:25, Swedish speech with subtitles in Arabic, Persian, Somali and English

The driving licence is a loan for those who are unemployed and between 18 and 47 years of age. You may take out a loan with CSN for a category B Swedish driving licence, i.e. for passenger cars and light lorries. You can borrow a maximum amount of SEK 15,000. You must pay back what you borrow, and you will be required to do this even if you do not obtain a driving licence.

Each year, CSN receives a sum of money for the purpose of the driving licence loan. We approve applications in the order they come in and only for as long as the funds are available.

Amount you can borrow

You can borrow a maximum amount of SEK 15,000. The money is paid in instalments during the period of your driving licence training, and each payment is SEK 5,000. You can only be granted a CSN driving licence loan one time, and the decision is valid for one year.

The driving licence loan may not cover the costs of your entire driving licence training, although it could be of help along the way. Talk to your driving school, so that they can help you put together a plan. You will then see how much is covered by the loan.

The driving licence loan can be used to pay for:

teaching materials and aids for driving licence theory
introductory training
theory training
driving lessons
risk training
knowledge test and driving test
hire vehicles from an approved driving school or from the Swedish Transport Administration, so that you can take your driving test.

The loan may only be used for your costs while the decision is valid. This means that you will not be able to borrow money for costs that you had prior to or after the time your decision regarding the driving licence loan applies.

The loan may only be used for a Swedish category B driving licence. This is valid for passenger cars and light lorries.

Requirements and conditions

There are requirements and conditions that must be fulfilled in order for you to borrow money from CSN for your driving licence.

You must not have held a category B driving licence previously.
You must fulfil the conditions concerning age and unemployment.
The traffic school must have permission from the Swedish Transport Agency to run a traffic school.
The traffic school needs to have an agreement with CSN.

On the Swedish Transport Agency's website you can see which companies are authorized to operate a traffic school.

Find companies with permission to run a traffic school on the Swedish Transport Agency's website

Conditions for age and unemployment

Depending on your age, different conditions apply.

If you are 18, but not yet 25 years old, you must be registered as a jobseeker with Arbetsförmedlingen. You must also fulfil one of the following two conditions:

You are participating in Arbetsförmedlingen’s Job and Development Guarantee Programme or the Youth Job Programme. You must be enrolled in the programme on the date that your application is received by CSN.
You have participated in Arbetsförmedlingen’s introduction programme or have had an introduction plan for at least three consecutive months up to and including the day before your application is received by CSN.

If you are 25, but not yet 48 years old, you must be registered as a jobseeker with Arbetsförmedlingen. You must have been a jobseeker for at least six consecutive months up until and including the day before your application is received by CSN. You must also fulfil one of the following two conditions:

You have been unemployed during the entire period.
You have participated in a labour market programme or have had an introduction plan during the entire period.

How to apply

Ansök om körkortslån

You can apply for a driving licence loan on Mina sidor [My pages]. Go to the page Körkortslån and then Ansök om körkortslån. You have to log in with a mobile bank-id or another e-identification.

If you are entitled to a driving licence, you will receive a decision with a loan grant of SEK 15,000. We send the decision to Mina sidor. You will receive an sms or email when we have sent the decision. You decide if you want to use the entire loan amount during driving licence training, or part of it. The decision on a driving licence loan is valid for one year from the date of the decision.

You have to request your payment

The driving licence loan is paid directly to you, not to the driving school.

The payment is not made automatically. In order to have the money paid into your account, there are two things you need to do.

Request payment from CSN.
Register the account with Swedbank’s account register.

Requesting payment from CSN

The driving licence loan is paid in advance with SEK 5,000 per payment. Payments are not sent out automatically, instead you must request them. You can do this on a form that you receive from CSN. You can receive a total of three payments.

In order for you to get the money, the driving school must have reported information to CSN. It will take around two to three working days from the time we approve your request before you receive the money into your account.

Do not wait too long!

Do not wait too long to request your payments. You will not receive any money after you have passed your theoretical test and your driving test. You will also not receive any money when your decision regarding a driving licence loan has expired.

The first payment

Prior to the first payment, you must inform your driving school that you have a driving licence loan from CSN. They will then report to CSN that you are enrolled with them and that you have a valid learner’s permit. You then submit the form "Begäran om utbetalning av körkortslån" (Request for payment of a driving licence loan), which you received along with your decision regarding a driving licence loan.

The second payment

Once you have reached costs of at least SEK 4,300, you may request your second payment. Fill in and submit the form "Begäran om utbetalning av körkortslån" (Request for payment of a driving licence loan). This form is sent to you together with CSN’s decision to pay out your first payment.

The driving school must have reported the costs to CSN in order for you to retrieve the funds.

The third payment

Once you have reached further costs of at least SEK 5,000, you may request your third payment. Fill in and submit the form "Begäran om utbetalning av körkortslån" (Request for payment of a driving licence loan). This form is sent to you together with CSN’s decision to pay out your previous payments.

The costs in association with your theoretical test and driving test will be disclosed to CSN directly from the Swedish Transport Administration. Therefore, you do not need to inform neither the driving school nor CSN of these costs.

Register the account in Swedbank’s account register

To have the money deposited directly into your bank account, you must register the account in Swedbank’s account register. It is Swedbank that manages CSN’s payments. You can use a bank account with any Swedish bank. You do not need to be a customer with Swedbank.

If you have previously received payments from CSN, and it was more than one year ago, you will have to register for your account again. If you do not register your account, or if you do not have a bank account, you will instead receive the money via a cash cheque. Information is given on the cash cheque with regard to where you can redeem it.

For how long is the decision valid?

Decision regarding driving licence loans are valid for one year.

In some cases, we may extend the decision. This may be possible if you are not able to complete your driving licence training as planned due to unforeseen circumstances. You should then contact CSN and apply for an extension on your decision. You must do this within eleven months of CSN making the decision. The longest period of time we can extend a decision’s validity is two years. Extending the period of validity does not affect the amount you can borrow. You can still borrow a maximum of SEK 15,000.

Repaying the loan

You must pay back the money you have borrowed. CSN also charges interest on the loan amount. The interest rate for 2019 is 1.74 percent. When it is time to repay the loan, you will receive information from CSN concerning when and how much you must pay. You will begin to repay the loan at the earliest six months after your decision on a driving licence loan has expired.

Usually you pay SEK 300 per month. This means that if you borrow SEK 15,000, it will take a little more than 4 years to repay the loan. It is of course possible to pay back the loan faster if you want.

Repaying your driving licence loan

Appealing against a decision by CSN

If you believe that CSN has reached an incorrect decision, you can appeal against it. CSN must be in receipt of your appeal within three weeks from the date on which you were notified the decision.

How to appeal against a decision

Frequently asked questions

Once you have borrowed the maximum amount, i.e. SEK 15,000, you cannot borrow any more money from CSN for your driving licence. Costs that exceed this amount must be financed in another way.

No. Those services are not available in the app. If you use a mobile device when you apply or request payments, you must answer no where you are asked if you wish to switch to a mobile-optimised page.

If you cannot request your first payment, this may be because your driving school has not notified CSN that you are enrolled with them.

If you cannot request your second or third payment, this may be because your expenses may not have been high enough for you to receive the next payment.

No, the driving licence loan is a completely independent loan. This does not affect other CSN grants and loans, such as student aid, education entry grants and home equipment loans.

No, the number of weeks for which you are entitled to student aid or education entry loan is not affected by the driving licence loan.

No. To be able to be granted a driving licence loan, you must be registered as a job-seeker at Arbetsförmedlingen. However, if you have received a decision that you are entitled to a driving licence loan, this will not be affected by you beginning to study. The condition that you must be registered as a job-seeker at Arbetsförmedlingen applies only during the time before you apply for a driving licence loan.

Do you have any questions as to if you meet the unemployment condition to qualify for a driving licence loan if you study while you are unemployed? The best thing to do in that case is to contact Arbetsförmedlingen. You can also try applying for a driving licence loan on Mina sidor. When you apply you will be told whether you meet the unemployment condition.

This will not affect your driving licence loan. The condition that you must be registered with Arbetsförmedlingen only applies at the time of applying for a driving licence.

You should then contact us so that we can send you a new form.

You cannot cancel your loan, but you can choose not to request any payments or request fewer payments. Note that if you have been granted a driving licence loan once, you cannot apply for one again. This applies even if you have not requested any money.

Updated: 2019-09-16