Adult and Community Services

Independent Living Funds

The Independent Living Fund 1993 is designed to help you, if you are disabled, to live independently at home rather than in residential care.

You can use payments from the Fund to employ people to give you personal and domestic care in your home.

Who is eligible?

You can apply to the Independent Living Fund if you:

Have a physical disability or mental health condition
Are aged 16 years or over up to and including 65 years
Are eligible for or receiving services from Adult and Community Services costing at least £200 per week
Are receiving or entitled to get the higher rate of the Disability Living Allowance
Have savings of less than £18,500

How does it work?

The Independent Living Fund 1993 provides money in the form of regular 4-weekly payments to individuals, which are used to buy care in the community. Recipients may use care agencies or employ personal assistants, but may not employ relatives who live in the same house.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use the money to buy items of equipment or make adaptations to my accommodation?

No. The Fund can only pay for personal and/or domestic care, provided by a personal assistant or a care agency.

Who can I pay?

You can usually pay anyone who is providing the care that you need. This may be a personal assistant, or you may choose a care agency to meet your needs. However, you cannot pay a close relative who lives in the same household as you, or pay for care provided by Adult and Community Services.

Can I pay a relative to care for me?

Yes, provided that they do not live in the same house as you.

Can my personal assistant take me out?

Yes, you can pay for someone to care for you when you are out of the house. You must need them to provide personal care for you while you are out (such as enabling you to shop, or toileting or repositioning while at a social event). The Fund can only pay for their normal wages, and cannot cover admission fees or other expenses.

Can my carer do my shopping?

If you are unable to do your essential shopping (groceries) then you can pay your carer to do this for you, just as you may pay a carer to prepare a meal. The Fund cannot, of course, pay for the shopping itself.

The amount of help I need varies and I need to pay different amounts depending on the help I need. What do I do?

We will agree with you an average amount of help that you need and base our offer of help on this. Although we will try to get this as close as possible to the actual amount you expect to have to pay, we will accept that you may need to adjust the amount to some extent each week, and this should give you some flexibility to pay more or less each week depending on the help that you need at a particular time.

We would normally expect that the amount we pay you balances with the amount you pay out over a 4-week period.

Can I use the money when I go on holiday?

Yes. If you still need to pay for a personal assistant to provide care for you whilst on holiday you can use the Fund's money to pay for this.

You may take your usual personal assistant with you (although you must meet the cost of their travel, accommodation and other expenses yourself - the Fund can only pay for their normal wages for providing personal/domestic care for you), or you may wish to employ someone at your holiday destination, in which case we will need their full details for our administration.

If you go abroad and still need to pay someone to care for you we will consider doing this for up to 4 weeks while you are still entitled to receive Disability Living Allowance.

Remember that, for clients of the 93 Fund, in order to have the above agreed you must still be receiving at least £200 worth of services each week during these periods.

What to do next:

If you think you might be eligible:

If you already have a Social Worker, tell them you want to apply for the Independent Living Fund 1993 fund
If you do not have a Social Worker, or you are not sure who they are, contact Adult and Community Services and ask for the Independent Living Fund Officer
You will then need to complete an application form to the Independent Living Fund. The Social Worker should be able to supply this, alternatively contact the Independent Living Fund 1993 directly (see contact details below)

Once you have made your application, the Independent Living Fund will contact you to make an appointment for someone to visit you at home and discuss your additional needs. Once this has happened, the fund will write to you telling you their decision, and about any offer of support they are making.

Independent Living Funds website|