87 year old Stairlift turned down by Council, need help in appeal

Bit of a controversial matter.
My is 87 who has had 4 children and was married, but after my Dad died a few years back, she now lives alone in a Council town house, now she struggles with the 2 flights of stairs and has had some falls, she is frail but her mind is very strong and sharp.
We contacted the Council and they sent a occupational therapist who said she needed a stairlift and a wet room, this was quoted and sent to Council who put it to a panel who declined it due the council could possibly offer a my Mum a smaller property where this is not needed and this would free up the larger property.
I can see there point but she has lived there over 50 years, my Dads ashes are in the garden, a garden which is her life and is fantastic after many many 1000s of hours she has spent in it.
They point out she will not have to move if she doesn't want to but its catch 22 as if she can't do the stairs safely she has on option!
She is now very very stressed after they turned it down, losing sleep, also she hasn't left the house for 7 or 8 years so the possible outcome of moving house is really lowering her mood.

If we appeal this do you think its possible to change the panels mind? And is there a set layout/template for such a appeal?
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Comments

  • cattie
    cattie Posts: 8,841
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    I can't see any appeal being successful, the solution of being moved to a smaller & more suitable property has been made & refused. If she feels she prefers to stay in a house that is unsuitable for her then she has to accept that no grant is going to be made available to her.


    Many homeowners have had to make a decision to sell up & downsize, leaving a garden they have loved & ashes of a loved one being buried or sprinkled out there (I'm one of them) but when a property gets too much for you, downsizing is the solution to allowing you to live a much easier & safer life & the family would be wise to encourage her to give proper consideration to this.
    The bigger the bargain, the better I feel.

    I should mention that there's only one of me, don't confuse me with others of the same name.
  • Can the four children fund the cost of the stairlift between them?
  • adwozere wrote: »
    We contacted the Council and they sent a occupational therapist who said she needed a stairlift and a wet room, this was quoted and sent to Council who put it to a panel who declined it due the council could possibly offer a my Mum a smaller property where this is not needed and this would free up the larger property.

    If we appeal this do you think its possible to change the panels mind? And is there a set layout/template for such a appeal?

    I think an appeal would have zero chance of success as it's likely that the Council are desperate to get her out of what is a family house as she's living there alone and give it to a family who actually needs it. They are therefore, quite rightly, not going to lift a finger or spend any money on keeping her there.

    To be honest, as you say that she's having falls, I'm surprised that you and your siblings are not making every effort to persuade her to move to a bungalow or flat where she would be safer rather than concentrating on the stairlift issue.
  • I would hope an appeal would fail, social housing is in great demand and has a lack of supply, getting people to move around like this is one way of getting round this problem.
  • Kim_kim
    Kim_kim Posts: 3,725
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    It’s best for her to move to a ground floor flat or a bungalow. What if there was a fire and she couldn’t use the stair lift.
    It’s for her own safety, she needs a place suitable for her needs.
  • It’s not clear why you think that the council should pay, rather than you.

    Am I missing something here, why do you think that the state has responsibility but you don’t?

    Buy her the stairlift, visit her regularly, and get to enjoy seeing her continue to enjoy the garden she has tended for so long.
  • Hi i would hope an appeal would be turned down as
    1) house is too big for 1 person
    2) it costs a fortune for council to put in a wet room and stairlift
    3) what about when your mum is no longer in the house.If a wetroom is put in its left for next tenants,what if they have very young children.
    A wetroom will be no use to them.so therefore by having to adapt a house for an elderly person you are making house unsuitable for people with young children.Thats not faiir.
    4)) best idea is your mum moves into a 1 bedroom bungalow or flat more suitable for her needs
    5) I am moving from a 2 bedroom 2up 2 down because i suffer chronic back pain and copd moving to a wee 1 bedroom bungalow more suited to my needs.And am 55
    We all need to move on do the right thing.I have been in my house 29 years but you take your memories with you xxxxx
    i came into the world with nothing,and guess what? i still have it!!!:p
  • Robin9
    Robin9 Posts: 12,056
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    Is moving downstairs an option - perhaps converting a dining room to a bedroom. ?

    My father had to do this - he had a lounge/diner so we put curtain between the two. No downstairs bathroom so it was a commode.
    Never pay on an estimated bill
  • Whatever the wrongs or rights of social housing occupancy, its very easy for people to not understand the psycological issues along with a physical conditions. I would appeal,
    firstly because the majority of cases are turned down initially even when sound.
    2, you have nothing to lose.
    Its very easy to say the family should pay, but this is judgemental and makes many assumptions. There are many charities that will supply grants, these can be found on the money advice service website under diability & illness
  • peterbaker
    peterbaker Posts: 3,083 Forumite
    edited 26 February 2019 at 1:10PM
    It sounds to me like the council are engaging in a very unsavoury coercion. I am not surprised. The one I have to deal with with regard to my own elderly parent is now worse than useless in so many respects. Goodness knows how many people local authorities employ and what their pensions will cost. Their main function appears to be coming out in council expensed cars doing shallow "assessments" and going back to the office and drafting very unimpressive plain vanilla reports which which mostly result in decision-makers saying No to paying for help. If they said No to employing the types who spend all day explaining why not, or float about and do the so-called "assessments", and instead spent the money wasted on their employment on actual help, we might begin to get some elderly social care worth the name.

    A stairlift should cost the local authority (who are responsible for adult social care as well as social housing and probably both at arms length) no more than about £4,000. It doesn't have to be brand new. It can be a refurbished one. It seems from a quick read of the OP's story, that they are attempting to coerce the unfortunate aged tenant into expending far more than that in wholly unnecessary upset in what more than likely are the last few years of her life, in order to do what exactly? Patch a hole in their continuing inadequate social housing plans? Make a point?

    I sometimes wonder if many of the so-called local authority social workers and decision-makers we all have to deal with at some stage in our lives have hardened hearts far less redeemable than those of 19 year old ISIS wives.

    And @John G Jones, why don't YOU buy the stairlift? Or are you alright, Jack?
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