House Improvement Grant for disabled people

Fat_Fairy

Hi :j

We moved into a shared ownership housing association bungalow last year after being on the waiting list for a year.

Three bedroomed was the largest we could get on the scheme, and as not many of them are built we really needed to grab the chance of taking one when offered. We love it, and love the area, BUT, the bedrooms are very small . The third bedroom is so tiny we use it as a computer room.

The main bedroom is shared by myself and my husband who has extensive degenerative arthritis of all his major joints. There is only just enough room for our bed, TV on the wall, and 2 small bedside cabinets. My husband, who walks with a stick, barely manages to move around the bed, which is particularly dangerous at night when he goes to the bathroom (he can't sleep well).

Our son is Autistic and will most likely live with us well into adulthood, and his present bedroom is pretty small, too. We would love to have one further room built on to give us the extra space we really need.

I have been in touch with my hubby's O.T and we're on the 'waiting list' for an assessment. However, she's being very negative about it all, saying she doesn't think we'll get a grant for such a new property :mad: .

Does anyone have any advice on this atall?. I am home full time these days looking after the pair of them and we have no savings left atall, having used all the money we had left from a previous house sale to buy a share of this place .

sheeps68

Go for it BUT instead of stating you want the grant for an extra room etc talk about the difficulties your son and husband have and the combined effect of these. Then work round to the conclusion that you need extra space & how this would help you all and how the clear and most likely cheapest long term answer would be to extend. From my work I can tell you the OT has to look at the difficulties then find the answer rather than you telling them the answer you want. Hope this helps you.

munchings-n-crunchings

Hello Fat Fairy!

It is the Disabled Facilities Grant route you are taking.
What you will find is that the OT had a duty to look at what is the cheapest solution to resolve your needs. So you may have hypothetical suggestions like a camode in the bedroom, or change of use of your third room to accommodate your bedside cabinets thus making more room to move about.
What you need to work out, is what ideas you think the OT will come up with, and why you feel these will not provide a long term solution to your needs.

My example, is that my heating was provided by open fire, and my adult DS, also autistic, could not cope with this heating if I was not there. The OT suggesting an oil filled radiator in his room, and I had to make it clear, that he could not wash or use other parts of the house if this was the option, so I then received a grant for gas central heating.

Plan ahead.
You will find that if successful, the council may put a clause in, that for grants over £5,000, if you sell you house withinn 7 years, the grant will have to be repaid, so that will also need to be considered.

Another thing to look at, is your husbands former employment. There are ofen schemes to help present and past employees, either in a certain line of work, or company specific ones. It is worth looking into.
good luck

Munchie

hilstep2000

Shheps is right. I thought I needed a downstairs loo, but my OT said, "If we get you a stairlift, you will have access to the whole house" and she was right. They know what the best things are, so be guided by them.

madhouse

Our OT was very negative about our chances of getting an extra room for our son who has autism. We did need to send a letter from our doctor stating the significant needs our son had, just for them to send a man out from the council. However once he came out and saw the situation he agreed the new bedroom immediatly. We were told it was granted on the grounds of safety. Good luck.

Fat_Fairy

thanks for the replies!

what i really, really hate, as i'm sure others do, is this 'game' we all have to play if we need help. I appreciate that we get help in the UK, but it seems you have to be an amateur lawyer to know your rights and how to find help, it's never offered (in my experience) to those obviously in need.

Anyway, i will keep plugging away with this one.

Dioritt

I've been disabled for 7 years now and nobody told me about the Occupational Therapist until I found out by chance last year. I called and spoke to a rather sharp 'lady' who basically told me that I didn't need to bath or shower - I could just sit on my toilet and have a strip wash.

I called again today as my daughter is soon moving out and I'm just not going to be able to manage without help. Again the strip wash idea was mentioned and it turns out that the woman I spoke to last year has logged it as a visit when she definitely did NOT come to my home to see me.

They've agreed to send somebody out to assess me anyway, so hopefully they'll see that I do have problems managing and come up with some workable solutions. I'm hoping for a shower with a seat to sit on but whether or not they'll give me that, I've no idea.

Thanks for the tip about letting them come up with a solution rather than telling them what you think you need. I shall remember that