Independent Living Loan
A loan for owners to carry out essential home adaptations
How much the loan can be worth
Up to £15,000.
What it pays for
There are three ways you can use this loan to pay for adaptations:
- to pay your means tested contribution to a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG).
- to top up a DFG for extra adaptation works.
- if you provide regular respite care or support for someone who doesn't live with you, such as a child or grandchild, you can use this loan to pay for adaptations to your home so that they can stay with you.
Who can apply for the Independent Living Loan
To qualify for this loan, the main criteria you need to meet are:
- you own the property to be adapted
- an Occupational Therapist has assessed the adaptations as being 'necessary and appropriate' for the needs of a disabled person living in the property
How you can apply
Contact the Occupational Therapy Referral and Advice team on 0300 123 5010 option 2. They will carry out an assessment and, if they feel adaptations are needed to your home, they will pass the case to the Care and Repair service to help you with your application.
How you repay the loan
The loan can be repaid in two ways - you choose which type of loan you prefer and we will carry out checks to make sure that it is suitable for you.
The first option is an interest-free monthly repayment loan. You start paying the loan back one month after we make the first payment for your home repairs, and you can pay it back over a period of up to ten years. We have produced a Rough Guide to Monthly Repayments (PDF, 176KB) showing how much you can expect to pay depending on how much you borrow.
The second option is an equity share loan. We offer you a loan in exchange for a share in the value of your property. There are no regular repayments, and no interest is added to the loan. You don't repay the loan until you sell your home or it is transferred to another person. The repayment will be based on the value of the property at the time that you sell or transfer it. For example, if we lend you £10,000 and your property is worth £100,000, we will have a 10% share in your property. When you come to repay the loan, the Council's stake is 10% of the sale price, so if the property is sold for £110,000, you repay £11,000.
Contact us
Page last reviewed: 23 December 2020
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