Disabled Facilities Grant

cjcj1976

Hi all,

Wondered if anyone has had any experience with the DFG please and how it works. We are currently having our ground floor study converted to a bedroom and installing a new ensuite wetroom in the room that is currently our kitchen for my daughter as we need ground level living for her. Due to the fact that we are losing our kitchen for the wetroom, we have to build an extension in order to have a kitchen. Does anyone know if the DFG will cover any building work for the new kitchen and, if so, to what extent? Will new units be covered or will we be expected to used all the existing units etc.? Any experiences with the DFG would also be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

cattermole

You would have needed to have applied for a DFG in advance of the work starting to get a DFG and would be very unlikely to get one without submitting an application before hand. The waiting list is also very long in most areas.

It would be subject to their plans, what the Social Services Occupational Therapist felt was needed etc. Has your daughter not had any input from an OT?

Children under 16 and their families do not have to pay towards the cost of an adaptations up to £30,000 in England. Scotland has slightly different rules on maximum grants.

singlehouseholder

Don't know if it will help but The process can be long, and it can take up to 6 months for a decision to be reached , and there are thresholds to what will be covered. You would have to use authority approved contractors, and get several quotes beforehand. £30k may sound a lot but probably wouldn't cover your build and new kitchen.
You need to talk to your daughters occupational therapist and they will contact the relevant department on your behalf. Good luck.

Morglin

I got mine, some years back, via the OT's from the local council.

Funding has to be agreed, and contractors approved, before anything can be passed.

It did takes ages - about 18 months from start to finish for a wetroom and other adaptations.

Contact the Adult and Disability Team at your local council Social Services.

Lin

Poppie68

If work has already started would they still be able to claim a DFG, even if the work on the new kitchen hasn't been started would they even pay for a new kitchen to be built and fitted?

Mr_Lawnmower

As the other posters have said, Disabled Facilities Grant funding is usually conditional on the council approving the works before they start. Usually, there is some sort of priority based queue for available DFG funding for major works.


I can't see any DFG money being made available to extend the OP's house and reinstate the kitchen. On the face of it, these works are not to meet the needs of the disabled person, but to put the house back to habitable condition after the privately designed and funded scheme to sacrifice the existing kitchen for the daughter's wet room.

Even if the OP had gone through the DFG process in advance of undertaking any work, there are only two ways I can see them getting DFG funding for work on the kitchen.

The most likely justification for DFG funding for the kitchen would be the council accepting it was necessary to adapt the kitchen so that the daughter could use it. This will be almost impossible to establish now that the kitchen has been removed.

The other possible justification for DFG funding for the kitchen would be to reach consensus that the overall balance of cost, access and architectural concerns favours sacrificing the kitchen for a wet room and reinstating the kitchen in a new build extension rather than putting the wet room in a new build extension. If the OP managed to establish this, I cannot see them getting DFG funding for new kitchen units and similar fittings unless the existing ones could not be reused or were unsuitable for the daughter's needs.


However, on the basis that you don't get what you don't ask for, it would seem worth the OP discussing the situation with the council.



My experience of DFG is that you get the cheapest adequate solution to meet the council's assessment of the disabled person's needs and no more. I was grateful for my DFG funded wooden wheelchair ramp - but it was an ugly and obtrusive thing that wrecked the front garden, much to the dismay of other family members. When we had the necessary money, we had that ramp ripped out and replaced by a wide block paving path that rises gently from the street to the door before relandscaping the garden.

There was no choice in the DFG funded solution I got, though this was regarded as minor works rather than the sort of major works the OP is undertaking. Either I had the council's "wooden monstrosity" (as it was termed by the family) or I got nothing from DFG - I couldn't have the cost of that wooden ramp towards the scheme we eventually built privately.

cattermole

I tend to agree with Mr Lawnmower Poppie.

It's highly unlikely because of the reasons he gives.

Although the example of the wooden ramp today there should be more flexibility because you can have a Direct Payment for minor adaptations. It also depends a lot on the OT involved because they did agree to part fund a block paved path low rising wheelchair access for my daughter but it was done through a Health/Social Services worker for minor adaptations, it wasn't a DFG. We had to submit 3 quotes and part funded it.

They probably if they had been involved from the start in this case would have extended on in some way for the wet room and left the kitchen as it was. Or even looked at other options like a floor to ceiling lift and converting an existing bathroom to a wet room.

I agree it is still worth contacting them though absolutely.

cjcj1976

Thanks all for your advice. Should have said before that we haven't done anything yet. We are in the process of having plans drawn with input of the council home adaptations OT and, having explored all the options, the conclusion is that the best place to put my daughter's wetroom is where the kitchen currently is. We are expecting to only get funding for the bare minimum to make the house habitable for my daughter but was just wondering whether the building of a new kitchen would be partly covered by the DFG given that we are losing our current one for her wetroom.

cattermole

Well if they are advising they can only put the wet room in the kitchen, then yes I think they would need to provide at least a basic kitchen. Assuming this all comes within the 30k.

Is it your own home as you mentioned Council Home Adaptations?

Mr_Lawnmower

cjcj1976 wrote: »

We are in the process of having plans drawn with input of the council home adaptations OT and, having explored all the options, the conclusion is that the best place to put my daughter's wetroom is where the kitchen currently is. We are expecting to only get funding for the bare minimum to make the house habitable for my daughter but was just wondering whether the building of a new kitchen would be partly covered by the DFG given that we are losing our current one for her wetroom.

If the decision is made that the wet room should go where the kitchen currently is, rather than in a new built extension, I would expect DFG funding to cover reinstatement of the kitchen to a reasonable standard so long as the overall scheme stays within the limit for DFG (in England it's £30k plus any top-up available from the council's discretionary scheme). You can't expect the DFG works to leave you with an uninhabitable house!

Obviously, you cannot expect any element of betterment unless that is justified by your daughter's needs or is the cheapest solution. For example, if there's justification for providing an adapted kitchen sink, that might be considered, otherwise DFG might only pay to reinstall the existing sink in a new location if it is reusable. Similarly, if the central heating boiler has to be moved and the existing boiler is serviceable with adequate capacity for the new wet room and extension, you should expect the existing unit to be relocated rather than replaced. However, the labour costs of recovering and reusing many elements of the existing kitchen might exceed the cost of replacing those elements.


It may be that the decision is eventually made that the substantial cost of relocating the existing kitchen does not justify the benefit of locating the wet room where the existing kitchen is rather than putting the wet room in a new extension. Occupational therapists are not surveyors or architects. They might have a limited appreciation of how expensive it can be to relocate an existing kitchen.

Mr_F_Dorsetty

Mr_Lawnmower wrote: »

My experience of DFG is that you get the cheapest adequate solution to meet the council's assessment of the disabled person's needs and no more.

One would have to agree entirely with your assessment of the possibilities of a DFG.

Further I'd also say slightly expanding on your quote above that in all 'grant' situations it is the case that the cheapest answer to any issue is pursued.

However in my experience and I am sure many others, what is purported as being 'the most cost effective option for the persons needs' often isn't in reality.

My disability is due to illness, I will never get better, in fact my condition can only deteriorate unless some new miracle drug is discovered.

I've been through the whole route of transit chair, self propelled wheelchair to basic power chair to a slightly better power chair to now awaiting a new 'super dooper all knobs and whistles' power chair.

The chair I am awaiting now is exactly what I needed 5 years ago but because I suppose of budgets etc people do not listen or they hear you but ignore you; they keep giving you the cheapest option they can get away with.

My general point is that you know your own disability better than anyone, you know what you can and cannot do and you know if you're getting worse or better.

So, try or even do not, allow yourself to be fobbed off or steered into agreeing with something that you know is wrong for you or really does not meet your needs. It only ends up costing you pain and aggravation, plus the supplier which my case is the NHS, more money in the long run.