Help For You

If you have a long-term illness or a disability and need help towards the cost of adaptations, equipment or other things to help you to manage at home, and which are not available from public funds, then we may be able to help.

You will need to find someone from the Health or Social Care Team who has been professionally involved with your care, to refer you to Independence at Home. The most usual referrers are social workers; occupational therapists; specialist nurses; disability and health advice workers; or key workers from other major charities. There may be other professional people who are willing to act as your referrer, and we are happy to talk to you on the phone if you need advice on who to choose.

We ask everyone who comes to us for help to follow the same application process. You must first be introduced by a suitable referrer, who will need to write a signed letter to Independence at Home describing your circumstances and explaining what sort of help you require. Once your referrer has written to us, we can then start the application process by sending your referrer an application form and some notes on the way we work. The application form and notes can be obtained on-line if preferred, by clicking on the download panels to the left, although it cannot be completed on-line and will need to be sent to us in the post in the usual way.

You and your referrer should fill the form in together and both of you will need to sign it. We may ask for other supporting information depending on your application - we might need confirmation of your illness or disability from your medical advisor, an occupational therapy report about equipment or adaptations, or a builder's or supplier's quotation where this is relevant. We will ask your referrer if we need further information. 

Please ensure that the form is fully completed on both sides, and that the final two sections are completed and signed by your referrer.  Independence at Home is only able to consider applications which are referred as above and where all necessary information is provided.

Please note that we are not able to consider applications where more than £2,000 has still to be raised. We ask you or your referrer to apply to us after all funds except the last £2,000 are in place, giving details of where these funds have been raised. We will then be happy to consider an application ( see application process above) for a grant towards the £2,000 balance. We will not be able to make a grant to cover the full £2,000 balance, but will look at making a contribution towards it.

Our grant-making programme is continuous throughout the year, and, when we have all the information we need to decide your application, we will be able to let your referrer know within 10-14 days if we can help.

Sadly, we cannot make grants to everyone. On the infrequent occasions when we cannot help, it is usually because what is being asked for is not something that we are able to help towards. We cannot help people living in any form of residential care, and we are not able to help towards the following expenses: medical treatment or therapies; funeral expenses; debts and arrears; leisure equipment such as TVs; motor vehicles (although we may be able to help towards the cost of adaptations); telephone rental or call charges; TV licences. We are not able to make regular grants to any individual and, although we can sometimes help more than once, we would not be able to make a second grant within a 12 month period.

If you would like to talk to Independence at Home about making an application, please ring us on 020 8427 7929. The office is open from Monday to Thursday but please note that contact is by post, phone or e-mail only. We are not open to visitors.

We look forward to hearing from you and your referrer, and hope that we may be able to help you.