question regarding grants to move grandparent up with us

brettcta

Hey

I'm posting to ask for some advice with regards to my grandma.

She has been living on her own for 3 years now following the death of my granddad. she has spent the last 3 years in and out of hospital, spending 6 months in there last year following a broken leg that was left my the hospital staff and became infected. this time in hospital, combined with various other ailments have left her unable to get out of bed or her chair without assistance. she also has parkinson's disease.

she has 2 carers that come in 3 times a day to get her out of bed, make her meals and then to put her back in bed.

not long after my granddad passed away, she was broken into. this has affected her ever since and she hardly sleeps. she was a light sleeper anyway, but now any slight noise and she's awake.

recently, her parkinson's has been getting worse and has led to hallucinations, which is leaving her unable to sleep because of what she's seeing. we have had to set up a rota of family members to stay down with her as she's terrified to be on her own at night.

she is adamant she does not want to go into a care home and we have said to her we wont put her in one.

the care package she is on is paid for by the local authority (Manchester).

whilst we do not live too far away from my nana (around 15 minute drive), my mum is down there every day, sometimes 2-3 times a day.

we have been discussing recently moving her in with us. my mum doesn't work (her husband does) and is registered as my nana's carer (goes shopping for her, takes her out wherever she needs to go etc.) and is more than willing to look after her on a daily basis (as she pretty much is now).

We were going to convert the downstairs living room into a bedroom for her (we don't use that room anymore, we sit in the kitchen extension) but the only problem was access to a bathroom, which is upstairs. (nana has a lift in the house to get her up/downstairs).

another idea that was bandied about was to build either a separate granny flat on the side of the house where she can have her own privacy, but still be part of the family, or build an extension with a wet room, where she can shower and use the loo etc.

now, obviously this would be fairly expensive to do.

she currently lives in a 3-bedroom council house in a sought-after area, with a big back garden and a good-sized front garden, aswell as drive way. as we'd be moving her out of that house and into ours (and effectively giving the council a house back where they could house a family), and the fact that we'd be saving the council money in the long term by removing the care package (which is very expensive), is there any way we'd be able to get a grant from the council to build said extension to move her in?

I'm honestly not sure about what our options are - i rang manchester council last week, but was just met with dialling tones and 'ah, i'll have to transfer you to X department.

any advice would be greatly appreciated

thanks

GlasweJen

I think you'd be able to apply for a disabled facilities grant but not 100% sure as your gran doesn't live with you at the moment.

Mojisola

Is this your area - https://www.housingcare.org/service/ser-info-5580-disabled-facili.aspx

You may need to meet up with Social Services and/or the Housing Officers at your Gran's and talk through things with them. The only problem is that council spending is very tightly controlled now. The release of the council house would benefit a different department to the one providing the grant.

oldhand

as another said council budgets are very tight but as you mentioned your gran would be freeing up a 3 bed council home,I suspect one big problem may be if your family own your home rather than rent? as I doubt any council would spend money to enhance the value of a private home.Best bet would be to have a face to face with the housing department who owns your grans home,good luck.

kingfisherblue

oldhand wrote: »

as another said council budgets are very tight but as you mentioned your gran would be freeing up a 3 bed council home,I suspect one big problem may be if your family own your home rather than rent? as I doubt any council would spend money to enhance the value of a private home.Best bet would be to have a face to face with the housing department who owns your grans home,good luck.

Disabled Facilities Grants are available to home owners as well as council tenants. We had a DFG several years ago, to add a wetroom for my disabled son. More recently, due to an Occupational Therapist's report, we have had rails put outside for him.

DFGs are means tested and work can take several months to complete.

tomjonesrules

Given that you already have room for her, I doubt you would be eligible for a grant. Also for older people they are far more likely to offer a commode than build you an extension.

Limana68

Contact your occupational therapist and they will arrange to visit you and your gran.They will discuss all options available to you. We had an extension done to our home for my mum and hubby's needs, this was means tested however, and we had to pay towards it. It took 2 years from start of application to completion, and there is a list but it goes on priority.
Please think long and hard about moving your gran in with you as it is a big commitment and if you own your own home you wont be able to sell for at least 5 years or you will have to pay back the grant.

Good luck!! Let us know how you get on:)

shegar

kingfisherblue wrote: »

Disabled Facilities Grants are available to home owners as well as council tenants. We had a DFG several years ago, to add a wetroom for my disabled son. More recently, due to an Occupational Therapist's report, we have had rails put outside for him.

DFGs are means tested and work can take several months to complete.

I agree with the above post, but id just like to add my own experiences to do with DFG works.....

You will have to have under £23000 in savings to be able to apply for a DFG , also be in receipt of Council Tax rebate....Whatever the total for the works done will go on land register that if you sell the adapted property under 10 yrs of worked being completed you will have deducted the grant money taken from your house sale..............You will have a very long wait to get this work done, as the council will do any option that will be cheaper to do, if she is totally disabled she may get the help, but if she can walk reasonably well and get into a bath they may not fund it...............They may be able to offer her quite a lot of aids that will help her without doing any alterations..........

My husband is wheelchair bound, and we really did have some problems with getting it all up and running, loads of appointments with OT and DFG council worker, plus builders in and out ,It took ages to deal with and was very distressing at times.......I wish you luck.......

kingfisherblue

I wasn't in receipt of council tax rebate when we had the DFG for my son - but we definitely had less than £23k in savings

Also, in my area, if you sell within five years (not ten) you have to pay back the DFG.

My son does not use his wheelchair indoors, but was offered a wetroom - we had asked for a downstairs toilet and washbasin. I hadn't even heard of wetrooms at the time. The OT decided that my son needed a wetroom rather than a simple loo and basin, as he has continence problems.

In total, from first discussion with the OT to complettion, it took about nine months.

I would imagine that councils vary in the services that they offer and how long they take.

Tehya

Hi I'm in Manchester. My husband is disabled (but not a wheelchair user yet) and we were able to get a wetroom, stairlift and other adaptations put into our new house before we moved. From our initial meeting with our Social Services OT to actually moving in took about 3 to 4 months so it can be done, it all depends on need (and possibly the social worker you get) at the time. We were told if we move within five years then we have to pay the DFG back but we didn't have to contribute anything at the time.