Disabled facilities grants are grants provided by your council (local authority) to help meet the cost of adapting a property for the needs of a disabled person. The scheme operates in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
To be eligible for a disabled facilities grant, you must be one of the following:
If you are one of the above and applying for the grant for someone else who is disabled you need to state this on your application.
You are treated as disabled if one of the following applies:
You can get a grant to help a disabled person:
Disabled facilities grants are normally paid by your local housing authority (your local Housing Executive Grants Office in Northern Ireland) who should provide you with an application form.
You will usually be asked to sign a certificate stating that the disabled occupant will live in the property for at least 5 years after the works are completed, or a shorter period if there are health or other special reasons.
A council cannot refuse to allow you to make a formal application or refuse to give you an application form.
You should not have any work carried out on the property until your council approves the application. If the work is urgent, you should contact the council to discuss this. You will also need to ensure that you separately get any planning or building approval needed.
The maximum grant payable under a mandatory disabled facilities grant is £30,000 in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. The grant will only be paid when the council are satisfied that the work has been completed to their satisfaction and in accordance with the grant approval.
The actual amount of disabled facilities grant that someone can get depends on the income and savings of the disabled person and his or her partner, even if the disabled person has not actually applied for the grant (such as when an application is made by a landlord with a disabled tenant ).
The income and savings test is similar, but not identical, to the test for income support (IS), or pension credit (PC) if the disabled person is aged 60 or over. In all cases the first £6,000 of any savings are ignored.
If the disabled person's income and savings are below the test limits there will be no need for him or her to contribute to the cost of the works.
If the disabled person's income and savings are more than the test limits, then a contribution will be required from them towards the cost of the works.
From April 2008 DFG applicants claiming council tax benefit, housing benefit and tax credits for those on low incomes will no longer be required to provide any further financial information in addition to these benefits. Also people in receipt of working tax credit and child tax credit will no longer have these payments counted as income in the DFG means test from April 2008.
Parents income is not taken into account for adaptations for disabled children.
You may be able to get help under other local authority housing grant schemes. See Factsheet F49 - housing grants in england, northern ireland and wales for more information.
A disabled facilities grant is compulsory but in order to approve an application the local housing authority must be satisfied that the works are both "necessary and appropriate" for the needs of the disabled person, and "reasonable and practicable" in relation to the property.
In order to check whether the works are necessary and appropriate, the local housing authority usually refers you to the social services department first for an occupational therapy assessment.
There is a 6-month time limit for the local authority/council to give you a decision. This starts from the date of your formal application. Sometimes your local authority may specify a date of payment for the grant but this should be no later than 12 months from the date on which you made your application.
If you do not get a decision within 6 months of applying, write and ask why and request that a decision be made. Seek legal advice if you still do not get a decision, or if you have been prevented from applying in the first place. Alternatively, you can make a complaint of maladministration to the Local Government Ombudsman.
In Northern Ireland you can complain to the Housing Executive.
For information on housing grants in Scotland see our Factsheet F50 - housing grants in scotland.
Guidance on the scheme and information about other housing grants available in England and Wales is contained on the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) website (www.communities.gov.uk) and also on the Directgov site at www.direct.gov.uk.
The housing grants, construction and regeneration act 1996 is the main legislation for disabled facilities grants.
The Northern Ireland Housing executive website (www.nihe.gov.uk) has information about their disabled facilities grants scheme. From this site you can download an application form, find out more about occupational therapist assessments and view a basic ready reckoner which gives some idea of the contribution you might have to make.
You can also find out more detailed information about disabled facilities 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
