Terms and conditions

Banking admin service

This page outlines the type of help and support Independent Lives can provide to you and your responsibilities to us in return. It also serves as a record for each party. Please take the time to read through this page.

Our commitment to you

Independent Lives banking admin service will:

  • receive direct payments from SSD or NHS into a dedicated bank account 
  • receive any contribution from you that has been assessed and notified to you/us by SSD or the NHS 
  • send bank statements to SSD/NHS when received and send a copy to you or other designated person that you tell us to 
  • make payments to any supplier when provided with a receipt or invoice 
  • handle your personal information in line with GDPR 
  • set up your standing order and request any backdated amount from your DP account for Banking fees if applicable
  • if you also use a Payroll Service, make payments to employees as advised by them 
  • if you also use a Payroll Service make payments to HMRC as advised by them 
  • if you use an agency or an additional service such as a day centre or pay for activities we will make payments to them 
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Your commitment to us

You agree to:

  • if you are required to make a personal contribution to your account, you will pay this amount, weekly, 4-weekly or monthly (as directed by us or SSD/NHS), to your account by standing order using a form that we provide 
  • you will ensure that the bank account number of your account is on all other correspondence, money transfer forms, etc. 
  • you will inform us if any information on the copy bank statement you receive from us is inaccurate 
  • you will be responsible to ensure that you spend your direct payment/personal health budget within your agreed (financial plan) & your support plan and that there are sufficient funds for us to make payments 
  • you will pay for the Banking Administration Service and any Payroll Service if applicable from your account
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We reserve the right to:

  • inform you and/or SSD/NHS if we see that your account balance is building up or running low 
  • seek authorisation from SSD/NHS if invoices are received that do not match limitations applied by them 
  • liaise with other Independent Lives (Trading) Ltd services as appropriate and/or to contact a relevant local authority officer if necessary 
  • inform SSD/NHS if there are insufficient funds in your account to pay invoices
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Our charges

The four-weekly fee for this service is: £33.17 plus VAT 

(i.e. £33.17 + VAT @ 20% = £6.63) 

So, you’ll pay £39.80 every four weeks 

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Your information

The information you give us will be kept confidential by Independent Lives and subject to Data Protection law requirements. However we do work closely with Social Services/the NHS who provides your funding and we may need to share information with them. 

There are exceptional circumstances where we are legally required to disclose information to authorities such as the police or Local Authority, for example if a safeguarding issue is being investigated. So that we can provide the right support we may keep the following information: 

  • Contact details – email, phone number, address 
  • Personal information i.e. date of birth. 
  • Health and Social care Information – if we are helping you write your Job description this really helps as we have all the information to hand. It will also help us understand the outcomes which are agreed with the NHS and or Social Service. 
  • Ethnic background, sexual orientation, sexual identity – collecting this information so we can ensure our diverse communities have equal access to our services and there are no barriers to accessing our services, for example language. 

You must provide to us promptly and accurately all the information which we may need so we can provide the services to you. You must also tell Independent Lives (Disability) if any of your details change. 

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What we can't help with

Independent Lives is not responsible for any decisions on care funding allocation or amounts you may be asked to repay to the council. 

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Paying for services

You must pay the charges for the services as notified to you by us, together with any applicable taxes (for example VAT). We can change the charges as set out in paragraph ‘our charges’, but if we do so, we will give not less than 30 days written notice to you. All payments by you should be made to Independent Lives 

We reserve the right to suspend or cancel the services whilst we recover any debt you owe under the agreements.

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Changing this agreement

We may at any time improve, modify, amend or alter the terms of these agreements and/or the services and their content if: 

  • there is any change or amendment to any contract, law or regulation which applies to us or the services provided to you; 
  • for security, technical or operational reasons; 

However, you will have the right to cancel the affected services if the changes are significant. 

We may change charges. Any changes to our charges we will give you notice of the change at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Any changes to charges will be reflected on your next bill after the changes take effect. You will have the right to cancel the affected services if you do not agree with the increase in the charges, as described in paragraph ‘your termination rights’ below. 

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Suspending services

We may suspend or reduce any or all of the services immediately without notice if: 

  • you have broken any agreement 
  • we have to do so by law or in line with a contract; 
  • we have reason to believe that you have provided us with false, inaccurate or misleading information either for the purpose of obtaining the services or at any time during the provision of the services; 
  • we believe that you or another person involved with you have committed, or may be committing, any fraud against us, and/or any other person or organisation by using the services or systems (or both); 
  • we do not receive a signed copy of the contract document from you within 30 days of starting your services; or 
  • you or anyone you authorise to deal with us on your behalf acts in a way towards our employees which we reasonably consider to be inappropriate. 
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Your termination rights

You may terminate the provision of any services, or cancel all agreements between you and us at any time after the minimum term by giving us 30 days' notice. You must pay any charges up to the end of that 30-day notice period. If you end one or more of the services during the minimum period, or if you break these agreements and we end any agreement with you within the minimum period, you must immediately pay to Independent Lives (Disability) an early termination fee in respect of each cancelled service, unless otherwise determined by us. 

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Comments, suggestions and complaints 

We would very much like to hear your comments and ideas for improvement of our services. You can contact us with your thoughts about the service at any time through our website www.independentlives.org. 

If you have a complaint please raise it immediately with your adviser who will work hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. If you feel this would be inappropriate please raise your complaint with the manager of the service who will help to resolve the issue. Independent Lives has a written complaints procedure. If you wish to view a copy of this please access it via our website www.independentlives.org.

Alternatively you can request a copy from our office. If you are not happy with the outcome of this process you have the right to complain to the local authority through the social or care worker that referred you to our service. 

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