What is a Disabled Facilities Grant?
A Disabled Facilities Grant helps towards the cost of adapting your home to help you to be more independent or your carer manage more easily. This may be getting about your home, doing everyday tasks such as bathing, going up and down stairs, or getting in and out of the house.
If you need any alteration ( we call it an Adaptation) to your home to help you to be more independent or your carer to manage more easily, then a Disabled Facilities Grant may provide funding for this.
Adaptations can only be considered after your difficulties have been assessed, they are usually the last resort after such options as rehabilitation are considered. Adaptations costing less than £1000 are usually arranged by Adult Services through the Occupational Therapist.
Who can enquire about a Disabled Facilities Grant?
Anyone living in (or caring for someone in) the Bradford Metropolitan District, who has a ‘permanent and substantial disability, and who has significant difficulties managing everyday tasks within the home.
What can I get help for?
The grant is provided for essential adaptations to give you better freedom of movement into and around your house so that you can use the essential facilities in it, for example:
- Taking a bath out and installing a shower
- Installing a stairlift or providing a downstairs bathroom
- Widening doorways and putting in ramps
- Improved access to enable the disabled person to care for a child or spouse etc.
- Ensuring the safety of the disabled person by, for example, fitting gates to stairs or safety glass in doors and windows
- Changing the heating system, or adding more heaters where this is necessary for your disability
We will also consider changing things to make it easier for your carer.
What happens if my home can’t be adapted?
Sometimes it is not structurally possible or acceptable to make the necessary alterations to a property.
If your home can’t be adapted we will put you in touch with the Disabled Persons Housing Service. They will assist you with re-housing if you wish.
How do I get Help?
First you will need an assessment from the Occupational Therapy (OT) Service. They accept referrals by telephone from service users directly. Please telephone 01274 435252 between 10.00 am and 3.00 pm Monday to Friday for this service.
An OT will visit you at home to discuss your needs.
If it is decided that an adaptation will be suitable for you, a Home Improvement Officer from the Housing Service will also visit to make sure the adaptations can reasonably and practically be done to your home.
This may mean that you have to consider adaptations that are not what you expected.
If everyone agrees that the adaptations will meet your needs and can practically be done you will be able to apply for a Disabled Facilities grant to see if you can get help to pay for them.
The maximum Grant allowed is up to £30,000 and is means tested to establish if you will have to make any contribution yourself.
Will I have to pay for the adaptation?
We have to do a ‘means test’ to see if you have a contribution to make to any grant for adaptations to be carried out. This means you will have to provide us with details of your income, benefits, savings etc.
With this information we will then be able to tell you if you have anything to pay and if so how much it will be.
If the disabled person is on income support or pension credit, or is a child in most cases there is no contribution.
The maximum grant that can be given is £30,000 but most adaptations we carry out do not cost this much.
Work must NOT start until the grant is approved
Contact Information
For further information or to make an enquiry about Disabled Facilities Grants please contact either:
Adaptations Team, Housing Service. Telephone: 01274 434520
OR
Occupational Therapy Service, Housing Options Team. Telephone: 01274 433723
Both located at : Jacobs Well, Bradford, BD1 5RW.
