About the Independent Living Funds (ILF)
The ILF may make payments to disabled people to be used towards the cost of them employing Personal Assistants (PAs) or using a care agency to give them personal care and domestic assistance. The money comes from the Government and it enables people to live at home with choice and control over the assistance they receive. The ILF is a discretionary organisation, which means they can decide not to pay someone even if they meet all the conditions to get ILF payments. The ILF is managed by a board of 9 Trustees and has recently become an Executive Non Departmental Public Body.
To get help from the ILF you must meet all of the following conditions:
You must get at least £200 worth of support a week from Social Services. This support could be something like going to a day-centre or getting money from a direct payment scheme.
You must get the higher rate care component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
You must be at least 16 and under 65. If you apply before you are 65, the funding can continue after your 65th birthday as long as you still meet all the other conditions.
You must be living in the UK and expect to live in your home for 6 months after you have applied.
You must have less than £18,500 in savings/capital (this includes any money your partner has).
How can I apply?
You can fill in an application form which you can get from the ILF by following this link , or you can obtain one from Bury's social services department.
Click here for contact details
There are 2 parts to the application form – one part for you to fill in and the other part is for your social worker to fill in.
The ILF will check you meet all the conditions before your application is accepted.
What happens next?
One of the ILF assessors will come out and visit you along with a social worker from Bury. The meeting is to find out more about your needs and we will use the information to work out how much money we may be able to offer you.
Your contribution
When we work out how much money the ILF may be able to offer you, we take into account the following benefits if you get them.
- Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
To apply to us for payments you must already be receiving the higher rate care component of DLA. We take half of this benefit into account when working out how much we may be able to offer you.
- Severe Disability Premium (SDP)
If you get Income Support or Pension Credit, we take the SDP part into account. You must tell us if you get SDP because it will affect your payments. If you do get SDP, this will be shown on your Income Support or Pension Credit statement under “How your benefit is worked out”, where it will say—“Because you are severely disabled”.
We may also take into account other income such as a company pension and tax credits.
