Disabled facilities grant questions

Indie_Kid

In the middle of filling in a form regarding my housing situation and health. Currently on council housing list and am classed as low priority because I have somewhere to live. The older I'm getting, the worse my health is getting and my parents house is becoming more and more unsuitable.

We live near three main roads and crossing any of them is dangerous for. Not helped by people blocking the pavement.

Anyway, the form mentions a disabled facilities grant. This may solve the issue of the steps outside.

I've looked on gov.uk and it mentions that household income is taken into account. Does this mean as an adult, my parents income will count? Even though it's for my benefit and not theirs.

GwylimT

If it states household income then it will include their earnings, I'm not sure if the cut offs vary council to council or if a national scale is set, when we applied we weren't able to get any help, at the time we had a household income of £27K. The amount given also decreases if the household has £6+ in savings. The DFG will not fund adaptions that cost less than £1000 and most local authorities will not allow it to be used for adaptions that cost less than £2000. DLA is not counted as income for the means testing.
Some local councils produce a spreadsheet informing you of what help you might get, it includes your personal circumstance, so children in the house etc. When we applied for ours as a married couple with two children we got nothing, the most you could earn was £400 a week before you got any help, and then you had to pay the first £13K of any alterations.

Your occupational therapist or social worker will need to approve the alteration/building plans to ensure all plans are necessary for your requirements, some councils require you to employ an architect, some wont pay if relatives are doing the work, but others will do, but of course it would be cost only and wouldn't cover their labor.

There are however charities, we contacted charities related to my partners disability and they were happy to help, in total we received £1000 which is a substantial amount of money and for the bits I couldn't do, such as electrics we called around and found an electrician who was willing to do the job at material costs only.

Indie_Kid

Thanks. Don't have a social worker or OT. Social services have refused to work with me. (long story)

Having thought about it, I'm not even sure if we have enough room to do what's needed - we have a driveway and some steps. I am struggling more and more to get down those steps safely, due to lack of depth perception.

Twisted_Cherry

solbert wrote: »

Even if you were eligible for a DFG, you could be waiting for months to have the work done. My late father wanted and was assessed as needing a walk in shower by SS/OT. This was in Nov 2013. When I chased it up a few weeks before he died, I was told that it would have to come out of next years budget which started in April 2014.

Same happened here, a two year wait, in the end he got a new property more suitable and moved!


And yes OP your parents income will be taken into account, plus any savings they might have!

Neelienew

solbert wrote: »

Even if you were eligible for a DFG, you could be waiting for months to have the work done. My late father wanted and was assessed as needing a walk in shower by SS/OT. This was in Nov 2013. When I chased it up a few weeks before he died, I was told that it would have to come out of next years budget which started in April 2014.

Surely if savings are taken into account then your father would not have qualified for help. You have inherited enough to buy a house.

solbert wrote: »

I wonder if someone could explain something for me. I inherited some money a few weeks ago and today received a letter from the benefit people that they have closed my claim as my capital is too much.
I presume that I have now to live off this money until it gets down to below £16,000. How do I work out when the time is right to put in a new claim? My rent and other bills will take care of about £180 a week of it, so it should last for about 7 years before it gets to £16,000.
My landlord has offered to sell the house to me for a quick sale which will leave me with about £1,000.
This makes sense to me as I will have my own home instead of renting and I won't have to waste the money on renting.
Can I buy this house and if so will the benefit people still treat me as having the money when I don't and if so what will I live on?
Hope that makes sense

Indie_Kid

Looks like we don't qualify then. Even though this is purely for my benefit and no one else's.

GlasweJen

Installing a ramp isn't that expensive, my parents had all of their stairs in the garden removed and filled in with mono block for less than £500 and they had a massive garden with 3 sets of steps - about 10 steps in total, the grant would never pay for that anyway.

As your VI you could get some cane training to teach you to use stairs safely and that would be helpful in maintaining your independence too, you're never going to get through life if you can't handle a familiar set of garden stairs - how do you manage shopping, visiting and things?

Indie_Kid

Already have a mobility cane. But it doesn't help that much. Certainly doesn't remove the barriers.

GlasweJen

It should help with placing where the stairs are, how deep they are and when they end?

Who taught you to use the cane? Social services in my area are appalling at teaching cane techniques but a charity called visibility give much better training and I refer loads of people there because they're not confident with their canes and they make a huge difference. That charity only cover Glasgow and surrounding areas but there may be something locally you can access?

Indie_Kid

Social services. But it was appalling. I had something like 2 39 minute sessions in 2010, which I had to beg for. Not received any help from them since.

I would also need to have noise insulation in my room too. Fed up of being able to hear absolutely everything the neighbours do.

GlasweJen

Noise insulation isn't a specific disabled adaption so I doubt they'd fund it, if you googled I'm sure you'd find some good noise proofing tips though.

I'd really look into getting better cane training- I can't imagine what you'd learn in an hour! It takes me longer to prescribe a reading magnifier.