Independant Living Fund?

[Nordicpollan]

DS2, Stu was due to finish school this July (however due to a big muck up on the side of social services no change there)his adult care plan is not in place!!( not really surprised!!).

However for the Summer holidays they seem very keen on us have Stu signed up to the ILF. We are not too sure why:confused2

Has any one else had any dealing with the Independant Living Fund?

At the moment it looks like Stu will be funded for another year at school by Social Services and the local Primary Care Trust. However nothing has been agreed as yet!!!!

Stu offically finishes school in 14 days:erm:

Social services and the Primary Care Trust have known about Stuarts need for the past 12 months, however have chosen to leave things until the last minute.

We are not looking for a huge care package over the Summer break as Stu needs time to chill out and have down time to recover from a very busy Summer term, but SS are trying to push on us a big care package so that Stu will be able to claim from the I L fund. Not at all sure why or if this is the way to go.

Any info any one has on this would be very greatfully recieved.


On a brighter note Its not that long before we are off to the best place in the world:grin:

Karen

[keith&carol]

Hi Karen,
ILF only funds people who are living independently away from their parents, so as I assume your son is still living at home it won't be any use to him. If he's severely disabled and out of education he can claim income support which pays out at 3 different levels according to disability and DLA which has a care component and a mobility component. Again how much you get depends on the degree of disability. If you have a good Social Services you should be able to get some money as a direct payment which is intended to fund personal care for people who cannot manage alone or who would have no social life unless someone other than family accompanies them.
ILF have a website which explains their service. From experience it's very hard to get money from them and impossible unless you are living independently - hence the name.
Anything else I can help with please say,
Carol x

[Nordicpollan]

Hi Carol

We have just had our bungalow extended so Stu has a new bigger bathroom, lounge/kitchenette and bedroom. This is still fully part of our bungalow but if Stu does want to be seperate he just has to close 1 door. He also has a patio door into the garden which seems to be the swinging point as far as ILF was concerned. They sent out a lady to do an assessment on him yesterday and she is asking just for holiday cover of 18 hours a week and this will be for all holidays for as long as he is at school. Then when SS and Health finally get his care package sorted we can go back to ILF and asked to be reassessed to get more hours!

She was unable to give us an answer there and then but we should here with in 2-3 weeks.

So who knows


Karen

[and306]

sorry to confuse things even more,my friend recently lost her father and is now caring for her mother who is mentally handicapped,her social worker has told her to claim money from direct payment for caring for her,however because direct payment only pay you for so many hours she has been told to claim the rest off ILF to make her hours upto 48 a week,she will be getting paid roughly £333 a week less tax.the reason for this is because her mother will not go into respite or have anyone else looking after her.It is quite complicated you should maybe speak to ss about it.hope i haven't confused you too much

[loadsapixiedust]

It sounds like you need some good independant advice as the funding of care in the community is complex. The Princess Royal Trust for Carers has good advisers or can put you in touch with someone who could help. You could also try Citizen's Advice for details of any advocacy or benefit advice centres near you.

[Nordicpollan]

From what I have read and been told you cann't claim ILF to look after the person who is claiming if you live at the same address, however if you live at a different address you can!

SS have to be putting in at least £200 worth of care in a week, to enable you to claim ILF.

The lady who came to visit yesterday didn't seem to think we would have to have any problems with Stus claim and now it is up to me to find people to cover the hours.!

Its a bit strange as we have fought tooth and nail to get his care plan sorted and that hasn't happened but for this summer they seem to be throwing respite at us. To the point that we are about to say enought, Stu will need some relaxing time on his summer break.

It's a very strange situation to be in. We know we have to fight to get the full time care plan we want, yet this holiday SS and health have suddenly as, in yesterday, are throwing all this respite at us


Karen

[keith&carol]

Hi Karen, It sounds as if you got lucky with ILF. I hope so. Bear in mind that the money will have to cover advertising for a carer and National Insurance and PAYE all of which can take a chunk out of the allowance.
I would take every bit of help you can possibly get even if you don't want it at the moment. In the future if things change it's much easier to argue against losing something than it is if you didn't have it in the first place.
Good luck!
Carol x

[Nordicpollan]

Just a quick update to say Stu has been granted the ILF for 18 hours a week.

We have got one of the lads from his care team at school to cover the hours which is really nice as I haven't had to teach him how to do everything as he already knows what Stu needs and likes.
Because he is not a nurse I can't go out, incase Stu has a seizure, needs sudden meds etc, but thats fine, they have spent a pleasent afternoon on the computer zapping aliens!! And I have had a snooze on the sofa:grin:

If anyone needs any info I will try to help.

Karen

[Bartswife]

Even just a little while on the sofa on your own can work wonders.

[keith&carol]

Really glad to hear you got things sorted Karen. The breaks will do you the world of good.
We've just had our ILF review again. They are offering us another £40 a week because of increasing care needs but it has to be matched by Social Services who already pay for her Day Centre and transport so I'm not optimistic at all about getting anything else. Still miracles can and do still happen!
Carol :wavey:

[ali and boyz]

our son gets ILF and is living with us. his accident was 4 years ago and at that time he was still in full time eductation. so therefore his carepackage was funded by ILF, education and social work. we have had to inspections from ILF so unless it is different in england ILF do fund when they person is living in the same house as their parents. I think thought you have to be in receipts of the High level of DLA.

glad you got it all sorted