Help with adaptations and repairs
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Independent Living Loan
The Independent Living Loan is up to £15,000 for homeowners to carry out essential home adaptations.
There are 3 ways you can use this loan to pay for adaptations:
- to pay your means tested contribution to a Disabled Facilities Grant
- to top up a Disabled Facilities Grant 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.
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
Contact the Occupational Therapy service on 0300 123 5010 option 2 to request an assessment.
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.
Page last reviewed: 13 March 2024
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