Housing Grants

FACTSHEET No. 44

Housing Grants

This factsheet briefly outlines the housing grants available in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and also tells you where you can find out more information.

1. Disabled facilities grants (DFG)

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.

Who can get DFGs?

To be eligible for a disabled facilities grant, you must be one of the following:

an owner occupier

a private tenant

a landlord with a disabled tenant

a local authority tenant

a housing association tenant.

Some occupiers of caravans and houseboats are also eligible.

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.

The housing grants, construction and regeneration act 1996 is the main legislation for disabled facilities grants.

Who is a disabled person?

You are treated as disabled if one of the following applies:

your sight, hearing or speech is substantially impaired

you have a mental disorder or impairment of any kind

you are substantially physically disabled by illness, injury, impairment present since birth, or otherwise

you are registered (or could be registered) disabled with the social services department.

What can you get a grant for?

You can get a grant to help a disabled person:

have easier access to and from the property (such as widening doors or installing ramps).

make the property safe for the him or her and others living with them (such as a specially adapted room where a disabled person could be left safely unattended or providing improved lighting for a disabled person with sight problems).

have easier access to a room used or that can be used as the principal family room.

have easier access to a room used or that can be used as a bedroom.

have easier access to a room in which there is a lavatory, bath or shower (such as by providing a stairlift).

by providing a room in which there is a lavatory, bath or shower, and wash-hand basin.

use a lavatory, bath or shower or wash-hand basin.

prepare and cook food.

by improving or providing a suitable heating system

use a source of power, light or heat (for example adapting heating or lighting controls to make them easier to use).

have easier access and movement around the home to enable the disabled person to care for someone dependent on them, who also lives there (such as a child, husband, wife or partner).

have easier access to your garden or make access to your garden safe for you - your garden can include a yard, outhouse or other facility within the boundary of land attached to your dwelling. It can also include a balcony or land next to the mooring of a houseboat.

Applying for a disabled facilities grant

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.

How much is it?

The maximum grant payable under a mandatory disabled facilities grant is £30,000 in England, £25,000 in Northern Ireland and £36,000 in 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 ).

For more detailed information on how disabled facilities grants are calculated see our Disability Rights Handbook.

Income and savings

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 the qualifying age for pension credit 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.

Disabled children

Parents income is not taken into account for adaptations for disabled children and young person's under the age of 19.

What if the grant isn't enough?

You may be able to get help under other local authority housing grant schemes. See Other Housing Grants.

Can my council refuse to give me a grant?

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 assessment by an occupational therapist .

How long should an assessment take?

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.

Complaining

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.

For more information see our Factsheet F6 - complaining about local authority decisions

In Northern Ireland you can complain to the Housing Executive.

2. Other Housing Grants

England and Wales

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:

get accommodation

adapt, improve or repair accommodation

demolish accommodation

replace accommodation that has been demolished

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.

Aids and minor adaptations in England

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.

The Rapid Response Adaptations Programme in Wales

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.

Help from Social Services in England and Wales

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.

Northern Ireland

There are eight housing grants/schemes available in Northern Ireland:

Disabled facilities grants - to help meet the cost of adapting a property for the needs of a disabled person.
Renovation Grants - to improve unfit dwellings. Sometimes this can be paid to remedy a bad repair.
Repair grants - help towards any work which the Council requires you to do by issuing a statutory notice on the property.
Replacement grants - for the replacement of unfit dwellings situated in rural areas.
Home repairs assistance - up to a maximum of £5,000 over a three-year period to help with moderate repairs, adaptations or improvements such as outside repairs to the roof and walls, repairing electrical wiring or installing central heating.
HMO grants - for the improvement and or repair of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) and for the conversion of buildings into HMOs in certain specific town centre areas.
Living Over the Shop (LOTS) grants - This covers work needed to make a property fit for habitation to promote town centre living in designated Town Centre Living Initiative Areas.
Group Repair Scheme - This grant is for the improvement of the outside of terraced houses.

The Northern Ireland Housing executive website has information about these grants schemes at www.nihe.gov.uk.

Housing grants in Scotland

In Scotland, under The Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, local authorities are allowed to provide grants, loans, subsidised loans, practical assistance and information or advice to home owners for repairs, improvements, adaptations and the acquisition or sale of a house.

If you are a home owner you can get a grant for:

structural adaptations to a house which are essential to a disabled person's needs.

providing standard amenities intended to meet the needs of a disabled person - such as a fixed bath or shower, wash-hand basin or sink or a toilet.

The grant will be 100% of approved costs if the you or a member of your household gets income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance, the guarantee credit of pension credit or income-related employment and support allowance. In other cases the grant will be 80%.

If you are a tenant you can only get a grant or loan for one of the following:

for work which has been your responsibility under your tenancy for a period of two years before your application.

for adaptations to a disabled person's house to make it suitable for their accommodation, welfare or employment, or for the reinstatement of any house adapted.

for work which is required as a matter of urgency for the health, safety or security of the occupants of a house, including, in particular, work to repair it or provide means of escape from fire or other fire precautions.

For more information contact your local authority. Guidance for Local Authorities is provided in Guidance on the provision of equipment and adaptations available at http://tinyurl.com/3cnn3mc.

Where can I get more information?

You can also find out more information about housing grants from your local advice centre, such as CARA or the citizen's advice bureau. You can get more information about the benefits mentioned on our website at www.cara-online.org. Much of this information is contained in factsheets available at www.cara-online.org.

You can also obtain copies of these factsheets/publications by contacting CARA on +44 (0) 844 478 0015 -Mob: +44(0) 795 695 2645 -Fax: +44(0) 872 115 8436 -Email: info@cara-online.org

Updated 18 April 2011