new roof and top tips for people with sight loss

kateandsara

My partner sara is registered blind and is on mid-rate dla (for care and mobility). I have a disability as well.

We have a mortgage and our roof needs replacing. Because we have lived in our house for more than 3 yrs and the dla we qualify for up to £7,000 worth of work via an interest free loan which is paid back over 5 years, we're dead chuffed as were dreading the winter and thought we'd have to re-mortgage to raise the capital.

Other things we find useful...
The government run a scheme called "warm front" they come and do an energy audit of your home, suggest alterations and then pay (up to just over £2,000) for the work, we had our boiler replaced under this scheme which has made a huge difference to our fuel bills since really worth applying, if nothing else you might get a few free energy saving light bulbs out of them
Our local council runs a ring and ride scheme, you have to ring up 24 hours in avance but the journeys are free for sara and £1 for me.
Sara gets free directory enquiry calls (you have to register with BT)
Sara gets a half price tv licence
We mostly both get half price for theatre seats and concerts
Sara's disabled railcard has paid for itself and the disability assistance in train stations are generally really good
If you apply for dla get specialist advice and keep a copy of your form
There's a blind person's tax code (we were unaware of this and sara got a £1500 tax rebate !)
Marks and spencer provide you with a personal shopper if you ask


Basically if you don't ask you don't get and manners maketh man (or in this case woman)

zzzLazyDaisy

Hi kate and sara

Thanks for your post - could you tell us more about the interest free loan you got for housing repairs? I need to re-arrange my bathroom so I can have a walk-in shower installed, so any info on funding would be really useful.

Thanks

Daisy x

kateandsara

we live in manchester and checked the local council website for home improvement loans. We had to fill in a simple online form and they phoned us back. Because we had lived in our house for more than 3 years and are on dla we qualified, they wanted to know the cost of our mortgage and if we had purchased under right to buy (we hadn't). the fact that the work will prbably cost less that £7,000 was also significant.

By the way, if you are registered blind you qualify for a social services assessment, these are not much cop but you never know they might be able to come up with something

My feeling is that every social services department/council will have their own schemes and own rules so nothing will be the same in every locality

It's also worth checking with a specialist welfare rights adviser to make sure there's no benefits you're missing

good luck
:beer:

kimlet65

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Hi kate and sara

Thanks for your post - could you tell us more about the interest free loan you got for housing repairs? I need to re-arrange my bathroom so I can have a walk-in shower installed, so any info on funding would be really useful.

Thanks

Daisy x

Daisy, you could ask for an assessment by an Occupational Therapist, I have had clients who've had wet rooms installed by Social Services following an assessment. You could also check out a Disabled Facilities Grant, your local housing authority should be able to give you info on this.

kimlet65

For blind or partially sighted people who get their gas or electricity from British Gas, there is also a scheme called 'Here to Help'. This is in conjunction with RNIB and if you're eligible, you can receive free cavity wall and/or loft insulation, free products from RNIB, one years RNIB membership and RNIB talking books free for one year! It's worth using this scheme for the insulation and then approaching Warm Front for heating work etc.