Disabled facility grant

If you are an owner-occupier or private sector tenant and you, or someone living in your home, are disabled you may qualify for a disabled facilities grant. This grant helps towards the cost of providing adaptations and facilities to help the disabled person continue living there.

While grants for a range of works are mandatory you should not assume that you would automatically qualify for a grant. Some works are discretionary and adult applicants are means tested.

Mandatory grants

These are available for:

Giving easier access to the disabled person's home and to rooms and facilities within the home, such as ramps, stair lifts and bathroom facilities.
Making the home safer for the disabled person
Providing or improving heating systems to meet the need of a disabled person
Adapting heating or lighting controls to make them easier to use

In considering an application for assistance, our Adaptations Team must be satisfied that the proposed works are necessary and appropriate to meet the needs of the disabled person and reasonable and practicable given the age, condition and location of the property.

Discretionary grants

We can provide these grants for works to assist the welfare, employment and accommodation of disabled people.

Such works can include:

Providing safe play areas for a disabled child
Adapting or providing a room to enable a housebound disabled person to work from home
Financial assistance towards the relocation of a disabled person to a different property, in certain circumstances.

Who can apply?

Disabled facilities grants are available to owner-occupiers and most tenants. The application can be made by the householder where the disabled person is not the owner or tenant (for example, a child or other relative).

To qualify we must be satisfied that the proposed works are necessary and appropriate to meet the needs of the disabled person and reasonable and practicable given the age and condition of the property.

How much grant will I receive?

All grants for adults are means tested to determine how much the applicant will have to contribute towards the cost of work. The means test is usually applied to the disabled person (and their spouse/partner) but where he or she is under 19 and dependent, there is no means test for a mandatory grant.

The means test takes into account income and savings but not outgoings.

The amount of grant awarded is what is needed to meet the cost of the work over and above the applicant's means tested contribution. For mandatory and relocation grants this is subject to a grant limit of £36,000, with a limit of £10,000 for most discretionary grants.

Applicants who are in receipt of means tested benefits or who are under the age of 19 and dependent are usually not required to contribute towards the cost of work.

How to apply

If you wish to apply for a disabled facilities grant we will first need to assess your needs. This assessment will be carried out by an Occupational Therapist employed by Social Services. Following this assessment, they will recommend any works that they consider would be essential to meeting the disabled person's needs.