This factsheet briefly outlines the housing grants available in England, Northern Ireland and Wales and also tells you where you can find out more information.
Under the Regulatory Reform (Housing Assistance) (England and Wales) Order 2002, local authorities have the option to provide financial and other assistance for repair, improvement and adaptation. This is help available in addition to disabled facilities grants.
You can be given help in the form of a loan or grant, equipment or materials or advice. Local authorities can set their own conditions for deciding who gets help. They may, for example, choose whether to look at your income and savings when you apply for a grant.
You can be given help to:
Your local authority must publish a policy explaining what kind of help they may give, who can get it, what information is available, how to apply for it and how to complain. Contact your local housing department to find out more.
Guidance about these powers is contained in housing renewal circular 05/2003, available from the department for communities and local government website at www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/housingrenewal.
Part 2 of the Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc) Act (Qualifying Services) (England) Regulations 2003 allows the local authority to provide you with an aid, or a minor adaptation to your property as long as it is for the purposes of assisting with nursing at home or aiding daily living. There is no cost for this but the aid or adaptation should not cost more than £1,000.
In Wales there is a Rapid Response Adaptations Programme, which is intended to respond quickly to provide small-scale adaptations to the homes of elderly and disabled people in order for them to continue to live there. The scheme can also provide help if you are leaving hospital or residential care.
You can get up to £350 worth of help for work such as the installation of ramps, rails and hand-grips, a covered way to a toilet, levelling of paths, community safety alarms and other work to make your home safe. The work to your home should be finished within 15 days of the day you were referred to the programme.
The Rapid Response Adaptations Programme is delivered by Care and Repair Cymru (www.careandrepair.org.uk/). To use the scheme you need a referral from your local authority or by a health professional.
You may be able to get help with adaptations as part of a community care package provided by your local social services department. For more information see Delivering Housing Adaptations for Disabled People: A Good Practice Guide, available on the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) website at www.communities.gov.uk.
There are six housing grants available in Northern Ireland:
The Northern Ireland Housing executive website has information about these grants schemes at www.nihe.gov.uk/grants/.
For information on housing grants in Scotland see our Factsheet F50 - housing grants in scotland.
You can also find out more information about housing grants in Disability Alliance's Disability Rights Handbook, available to buy at www.disabilityalliance.org/drh33.htm.
You can obtain copies of our factsheets and publications by contacting Disability Alliance on 020 7247 8776 (voice and minicom) or by fax on 020 7247 8765.
April 2008
