Disabled facilities grant advice please

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please could someone advise me on a disabled facilities grant. I dont want to name the area or council as they have always been very helpful and polite but seem very understaffed and underfunded.

I contacted the council early May this year to apply for a small adaption that i need to make access to my property easier. I received written confirmation from them in May to say a referral to an occupational therapist has been made but there is a substantial wait. I was later contacted by phone to ask if i still wanted to apply and advising that it will take around ten months for them to send out an occupational therapist to assess my needs.
I wrote an email to the council to say i thought as per the .Gov website and many other websites that they had six months from my application date in May to make a decision. And asking how could they make any decision if it will take ten months before i hear from an occupational therapist.

The council have written back to say the six month timescale i have seen is from when they receive a completed application which includes the assessment and all other information.

This effectively gives the council an unlimited time to send out an occupational therapist and say my application is complete.

Sort of makes the information on the .Gov website worthless if the council can take as long as they want to send out an occupational therapist.

Please can someone confirm if the information i have been given by the council is correct? As if it takes ten months for a visit from an occupational therapist i will be looking at potentially years to get the work completed?

Thank you

Brie

If you are at home and "coping" then you are going to be a ways down the list for an OT to do an assessment.  Their concerns are, and always will be, those who are in hospital that they want to send home.  Discharge normally can't happen for many with the assessment.  Once the assessment is done I would expect things to be done reasonably quickly but as with anything will be dependent on workers being available to do the adjustments.

How small an adjustment is it?  If it's something like hand rails to get in and out of the house there might be some other way to get this done faster.  It might be something a HandyVan service can do if you are on benefits/low income or it might be something that a local group might take  on just to be helpful.  You might need to fund the materials but if others can do the work then that's half the battle at least.  

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I have a small driveway that is too narrow due to a wall and higher ground the other side of the wall.
I am unable to get out the car when parked on the driveway.
I can either park on the road if a space is available or reverse onto my drive and walk over the neighbours property which they don't like.
I asked a local builder who said to do the work as cheap as possible would be around £4000

beanielou

Your local Men’s shed may be able to help?