If you or the person you care for would benefit from home adaptations or equipment that would make it easier or safer for you to be independent then you could qualify for financial help towards these from your local authority.
The way that the local authority funds aids and adaptations is quite different depending on whether you require minor adaptations or more major ones. We explain the financial support available for both below.
Small aids and minor home adaptations
Small pieces of equipment and minor adaptations to your home are often provided completely free of charge by the council.
Under the Care Act 2014, the local authority are not allowed to charge for providing disability equipment or minor adaptations that help with daily living. That means that each adaptation or aid that is under £1,000 should be paid for by your local council, regardless of your own financial situation or how many of them you require.
This could include things such as having grab rails fitted, a short concrete ramp built or an intercom and automatic door lights installed.
If you want to learn more about the possible aids and adaptations that are available, take a look at our guides ‘Equipment and assistive aids to help the person you care for’ and ‘Home adaptations to help the person you care for’.
Larger items or adaptations
For more expensive items and larger home adaptations, the picture is a little more complex.
There is still some local authority funding available, primarily through what is known as a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG). But this has quite a complicated application process and the funding is dependent on meeting certain eligibility criteria.
Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG)
The Disabled Facilities Grant is funding provided by the local authority towards large essential home adaptations for people with disabilities. The aim of the funding is to allow you to be able to stay in your own home for longer. The DFG is a mandatory grant, so if you meet all the criteria, the local authority must pay you the grant.
To be eligible, you or the person you care for must meet the following criteria:
- Be over 18 years old.
- Have a permanent disability of any kind, including a physical disability, a learning disability or a mental illness.
- Be the private, local authority, housing association or licensee tenant, owner occupier or landlord of the property.
You must also be intending to stay in the property for a reasonable length of time. When you apply, you usually have to sign an agreement saying you will stay there for at least a further five years.
The maximum amount usually awarded through a Disabled Facilities Grant is £30,000. The average grant is around £9,000.
How much you receive depends on the scale of the adaptations required and your financial situation. Disabled Facilities Grants are means-tested, so the amount awarded will depend on your income and any savings you have over £6,000. Each local authority sets their own financial criteria for these grants, so you should talk to them to find out exactly what you could be entitled to.
The funding is primarily to pay for adaptations and equipment that the local authority defines as necessary and appropriate to meet your needs. The council must also agree that the work is reasonable and practical, particularly taking into consideration the age and condition of the property. The sort of essential adaptations that can come under a Disabled Facilities Grant include having doors widened, rooms adapted, stairlifts installed or wet rooms built.
The local authority will only pay for the minimum building work required and particular products up to a capped price. If you would prefer a more expensive model or for additional work to be done at the same time, then you will have to cover the difference in price yourself or through other funding sources.
It can sometimes also be possible to get a Disabled Facilities Grant towards less essential adaptations, including having kerbs dropped and play areas installed. However, the local authority does not have a mandatory duty to fund these, so requests like these will only be granted if there is additional discretionary funding available.
You can be referred by your social worker or occupational therapist or you can also apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant directly yourself. To do the latter, contact your local authority and ask to speak to their housing department. If you don’t know which local authority you come under, you can find out on the GOV.UK website.
The first step is usually to have an occupational therapist assessment, if you have not already had one. They will determine whether the adaptations you want are essential to meet the needs of you or the person you care for. For further information, take a look at our guide ‘Occupational therapist assessments’.
Following this, the council may want to discuss the work that needs doing with you before you submit a formal application. This could include discussing any surveys or planning permission that may be needed. They may also want an assessment by a member of their environmental health team to make sure that the work is appropriate for the type of property you live in. If you do need planning permission or building regulations approval then you will need to apply for this separately.
Bear in mind that the application process for a Disabled Facilities Grant can take quite a while. The council has a legal duty to make a decision about your grant application within six months of the date you formally submit the application form, but this does not cover any of the pre-application discussions or assessments. There are often long waiting lists for occupational therapist assessments and this can be extended even further if you also need to apply for planning permission. If you require the adaptations urgently, then the local authority may be able to help more quickly using other funds. Take a look at the 'Discretionary funds' section below for further details.
You must not start any of the building work until you have heard the outcome of the Disabled Facilities Grant application. The local authority may not give you any grant at all if you start before you have had your application approved.
If you or a relative do the work yourselves then the local authority will usually only reimburse you for the materials you have bought and not your labour time. The council may request that you employ a qualified architect or surveyor to project manage the work rather than doing it yourself. If so, then you can use some of your Disabled Facilities Grant to cover the cost of this.
If you are awarded a grant, then it could be paid in instalments, with a payment being made after each stage of the work is completed and checked by the local authority, or it could be paid in full once all of the work is finished and the council is happy with it. The local authority may pay the person who did the work directly or may pay you for you to then pay the contractor. They will want to make their payment no more than 12 months after the date of your application.
If you or the person you care for ends up needing some additional home adaptations, for instance if you have a degenerative condition and your needs change, then you can make additional applications for Disabled Facilities Grants in the future.
If your application is rejected and you disagree with this decision, you can make a complaint about it. You can also make a complaint if the council takes longer than six months to make a decision. Take a look at our guide ‘Making a complaint about the local authority’ for further information.
If you are not eligible for support from the local authority or the grant you are awarded does not cover the full cost of the adaptations required, then you could consider seeking funding from other sources. Take a look at our guide ‘Financial support for home adaptations’ for further details.
Discretionary funds
In addition to the mandatory funding that the local authority must give out through Disabled Facilities Grants, they may also have some separate discretionary funds.
They can award these for anything they think is appropriate, and can give as little or as much as they want. This funding can be given in addition to a Disabled Facilities Grant or instead of one.
Discretionary funds are often used for particular cases that don’t fit the Disabled Facilities Grant scheme but still warrant funding. This could be because, for instance, the adaptations are urgent and the funding needs to be processed more quickly than a Disabled Facilities Grant could be. Or it could be because the total cost of the works exceeds what can be funded through a Disabled Facilities Grant and you are not able to meet the remaining cost yourself.
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