Disabled Facilities Grants

Introduction

Disabled or older residents can use a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) for home adaptations that help them live independently.

To get a grant, you need to:

  • be a homeowner or private tenant 
  • be assessed by our occupational therapy (OT) team, who may then recommend an adaptation to your home

If you're a council tenant, see Adaptations to council housing.

You can read more about eligibility for Disabled Facilities Grants on GOV.UK.

The assessment process

When our OT team assesses your needs, they identify the level of risk and decide on the level of priority for your requirements.

The priority level will either be:

  • high (where your need is urgent)
  • medium (where your need is important but not immediately urgent)
  • low (where your need assistance, but not urgently)

The OT team will then send a referral to the housing adaptation service (HAS), who will handle: 

Due to the high number of referrals to the HAS, we cannot give a timeframe on when your application will progress. This depends on your level of priority and how many other applications are waiting before yours.

'Informal' means testing

All DFG applications for people over the age of 18 years are means-tested.

After we contact you, you will need to complete a form providing details of your financial circumstances, including savings and income.

Once you've completed and returned the form, the HAS team carries out an initial, informal means test. This will determine that either:

  • your application can be ‘passported’
  • you have to make a financial contribution towards the works

To be ‘passported’ you need to receive certain benefits.

Read more about how much DFG you might get on GOV.UK.

We will advise you by letter of the outcome of your informal means test before progressing with your application.

This letter will include a reply slip.

You then need to:

Sign and return the reply slip to the HAS Team.

This confirms you:

  • accept the result of your informal means test
  • are happy to pay any assessed contribution

We cannot go any further with your application until we receive this signed reply slip.

After this, a member of the HAS Team will assist you through the remaining application process.

Please note, at this stage you have not made an application for a DFG, you have just been placed on the enquiry waiting list.

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