Can my mum get a grant or interest free loan to convert her bathroom?

Mindless_Clone

My mum has a severe disability involving her back. Short story, it's basically crumbling away. Until recently she walked with sticks/frame and have a mobility scooter for shopping. In March she had a medical emergency resulting in 3 month stay in hospital. Her new medical condition has weakened her considerably and she is now no longer able to support her own weight. Although she's showing some improvement in her rehabilitation, in all reality she's very unlikely to ever be able to walk properly and will need round the clock care for the rest of her life.
She can stand with assistance of two carers on a turner, and be taken to the bathroom on a commode. Luckily, my parents have a downstairs loo/shower room and the care team have fitted a (somewhat flimsy mind) ramp up the step into the shower room. However, because it is narrow room and the configuration is such that she is unable to use the shower at all (can't even get the comode past the toilet to get to it). She, literally, hasn't had a bath or shower for 6 months. To wash her hair we have to lean her back in her wheelchair and pop her head over a bowl. It's messy and painful for her to be honest.
I have suggested to my parents that converting the room to a wet room, installing the toilet at the end and the shower coming from the ceiling/wall in the middle and a fold up shelf seat for her would mean she could have a shower. Looking at the layout, this would seem perfectly doable and would mean only extending the soil pipe a short way, and digging into the concrete base to change the layout of the drains slightly.

My mum is 78 and on attendance allowance, and my dad on a normal pension. My two brothers also live at home at the moment, but one is on DLA (he has an inoperable brain tumour) and the other unemployed but now likely to remain so and go for carers allowance since my dad is unable to help my mum on his own, being in his 70s himself. They have a privately owned house but there's no spare money to pay for this work to be done.

My mum has two carers who come in twice a day to help which supports my dad/brother as they are more or less 24 caring for her otherwise. the external carers attend to her personal care only and give her a bed bath (or equivalent) every day.

She has OT round and assement done. While they have put things like a bed and wheelchair and turner in place, she has also been promised ramps on the external doors, and a grab rail next to her bed, but these have not materialised. She's been home nearly 6 weeks now and heard nothing. She was under the disability care team but they have discharged her to elderly care and, since then, no real progress has been made getting these things in place. They have made no mention of converting the bathroom or anything like that. My mum is a feisty person and keeps nagging my poor dad to sort it out... bless him he's worn down looking after her so I said I'd look into this for her.

Can anyone give me any pointers in this? Can they get a grant to convert the bathroom? if so, how do we go about this? Do I need to nag the team who are supposed to be supplying the other things or can I bypass that? I don't hold a lot of faith in them delivering anything really.


Thanks in advance.

krisskross

Could they release any equity in the property to provide the funds for the work if no other funding is available?

borkid

Try your local council they may have money available. When my daughter needed money for improvements she was able to borrow at a low interest rate and no repayments until she sold her house.

This was a couple of years ago so things might have changed but they should be able to point you in the right direction.

mary-op

I was in hospital with spinal problems 18months ago and when I came home occ.therapist sorted out various aids (grab rails, extra stair rail, commode downstairs as loo is upstairs) and contacted the local council about installing a wet room. I had to wait till last October for it to be done but its made such a difference. I paid for a downstairs loo from what bit of savings we had.
Council were considering a stair life but it didn't come to anything. All depends on how much funding the council has.
Good luck

Mindless_Clone

krisskross wrote: »

Could they release any equity in the property to provide the funds for the work if no other funding is available?

Do you mean take out a loan/grant on the equity in the house and repay it when the house is sold? To be honest, it's unlike the house will be sold - at least in my lifetime - as it will be passed down to all the children (there are 5 of us) to live in. 2 of my brothers still live there and won't be left homeless when my parents die so, although we will all have equal share and agreed to let whoever needs a home live there (complicated I know). I suppose that would mean any scheme that relies of repaying a grant or loan on my mother's death would be fundamentally flawed because it would leave the rest of us with debt we could not repay.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I will contact the LA and ask for their advice. Good to know they are the place to start.

margaretclare

mary-op wrote: »

I was in hospital with spinal problems 18months ago and when I came home occ.therapist sorted out various aids (grab rails, extra stair rail, commode downstairs as loo is upstairs) and contacted the local council about installing a wet room. I had to wait till last October for it to be done but its made such a difference. I paid for a downstairs loo from what bit of savings we had.
Council were considering a stair life but it didn't come to anything. All depends on how much funding the council has.
Good luck

The OP's mum seems to have had less consideration than this. Could that be because mum was transferred from disability care to elderly care team? I hope that this is not the reason for the - apparent - lower level of interest and speed in dealing with mum's problems, which are as real no matter what age, but you hear such things about older people being treated less favourably. I do hope not!

Mojisola

Talk to the Elderly Team. Your mother should be taken out to a local care home for regular showers or baths if she's not able to use the facilities at home.

If you don't get a reasonably prompt response from them, write to your parents' MP - how would he/she feel if their mother hadn't had a shower for six months?

You might need to look again at the situation regarding the house. It would be worth discussing it with AgeUK or CAB. The LA won't be interested in what personal arrangements you've made to live in the house if they decide it counts as capital towards paying care home fees.

krisskross

Mindless_Clone wrote: »

Do you mean take out a loan/grant on the equity in the house and repay it when the house is sold? To be honest, it's unlike the house will be sold - at least in my lifetime - as it will be passed down to all the children (there are 5 of us) to live in. 2 of my brothers still live there and won't be left homeless when my parents die so, although we will all have equal share and agreed to let whoever needs a home live there (complicated I know). I suppose that would mean any scheme that relies of repaying a grant or loan on my mother's death would be fundamentally flawed because it would leave the rest of us with debt we could not repay.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I will contact the LA and ask for their advice. Good to know they are the place to start.

Why can't the house be sold and you all take your share? Your brothers would then have to rent or buy for themselves, perhaps as a joint enterprise. Seems a bit unfair to expect taxpayers to pay for improvements when it would be possible to raise the money yourselves.

you could perhaps take out a loan secured on the property which could be repaid out of the rent your brothers pay.

Mojisola

krisskross wrote: »

Why can't the house be sold and you all take your share? Your brothers would then have to rent or buy for themselves, perhaps as a joint enterprise. Seems a bit unfair to expect taxpayers to pay for improvements when it would be possible to raise the money yourselves.

you could perhaps take out a loan secured on the property which could be repaid out of the rent your brothers pay.

If the parents own the house, they can't sell it and give away some of the money without getting caught by the DOC rules.

There's useful information here -
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS10_Paying_for_permanent_residential_care_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

Ames

When my mum was diagnosed with lung cancer she was in a similar position. There was a downstairs loo and shower but she couldn't access the shower. Social services paid to have it converted to a wet room. She was younger than your mum - 52 - so it would have been the disability team (or possibly adult social care, I can't remember), not the elderly team.

It does seem to vary wildly by area though, she was told they'd pay for help with things that my local SS specifically exclude.

krisskross

Mojisola wrote: »

If the parents own the house, they can't sell it and give away some of the money without getting caught by the DOC rules.

There's useful information here -
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS10_Paying_for_permanent_residential_care_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

I was thinking about when the house is inherited. Then it can be sold and any secured loan paid off and the remaining proceeds shared.