Introduction.
The Disabled Facilities Grant is a means tested award of up to £30,000 which is designed finance the cost of proerty adaptations in order to better meet the needs of a disabled person.
As well as the works themselves, the grant may also be used to pay architects' and surveyors' fees as well as charges for planning permission and building regulations approval.
Please note that grants are only available in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland has its own system of funding adaptations.
Grants are administered by your local authority's housing department. Before awarding the grant the housing authority will need to satisfy itself that the proposed adaptations are "necessary and appropriate" to meet your needs - in order to do this they will ask an occupational therapist to make an assessment of your needs. The housing authority also need to ensure that the adaptations are "reasonable and practicable" depending on the age and condition of the property.
The local authority is required to respond to an application for a grant within six months of receiving it. The grant is normally paid within twelve months of the application. Payment will only be made when the authority are satisfied that the work has been completed to their satisfaction and in accordance with the grant approval and on receipt of an acceptable invoice, demand or receipt for payment of works. If the work has been carried out by the applicant or a relative of the applicant only invoices for materials and services bought are acceptable.
Who can apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant?
The relevant legislation defines a person as disabled if " his sight, hearing or speech is substantially impaired or he has a mental disorder of any kind or he is physically substantially disabled". You will also be accepted as being disabled if you are registered (or could be registered) with the local social services department. The legislation does not define what a substantial impairment may be.
In order to apply for a grant you must be-
The applicant will be required to submit either an "owner's certificate" or a "tenant's certificate". A landlord may apply on behalf of a disabled person.
The applicant will also be required to sign a document confirming that the disabled person will occupy the dwelling as his or her only place of residence for the following five years.
What a Disabled Facilities Grant can be used for.
Section 23 of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act lists the purposes for which a grant may be given:
Since May 2008 local authorities are also required to fund works which facillitate a disabled occupant's access to and from a garden or works which make access to a garden safe for a disabled occupant.
Means Testing
All applications in respect of disabled adults are means tested.
Applications in respect of disabled children and young people under the age of 19 are exempt from means testing.
The means test is applied to the disabled person and his or her spouse or partner. This is the case even when the applicant is someone else (eg a landlord).
Essentially the means test works by working out the value of a notional standard repayment loan that you could afford using your "excess income."
Excess income is when your income is greater than your applicable amount. The income of those on income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance/joint jobseeker's allowance or pension credit is deemed to be nil and these people are not normally required to make a contribution.
Workiing tax credit and child tax credit are disregarded as income, this is designed to directly assist working families on low incomes with children.
Income from either Disability Living Allowance or Attendance Allowance is ignored when working out your income.
People in receipt of council tax benefit, housing benefit and tax credits for those on low incomes will not be required to provide any further financial information.
Only those savings above £6000 are taken into account.
The applicable amount is worked out by adding your weekly living needs (and those of your family) to the grant premium of £56.40 per week.
Disability Alliance gives the example of an owner occupier with excess income of £100 being required to contribute £3421.10 towards works costing a total of £11,000.
The method of means testing is both complex and time-consuming which can lead to unnecessary delays in grants being awarded. The Government has recognised this and proposes to modernise and simplify the means testing process.
Other information
We provide an overview of the Government's good practice guide on delivering housing adaptations for disabled people which sets out the way in which the disabled facilities grant should be administered and delivered.
The test of resources page and spreadsheet give more detail about the way means testing is applied.
The Disabled Facilities Grant booklet is produced by the Department of Communities and Local Government and is a general introduction to the grant and the processes involved.
The DFG package of changes document sets out the ways in which the Government proposes to modernise the grants programme.
