Disabled Facilities Grants

If you have (or someone living with you has) a substantial disability and are unable to use essential facilities (bathroom, kitchen etc) in your home there are a number of things you can do. One of your options may be to adapt your home to make it possible for you to get around and help you live more independently - and, if you are eligible, you may be able to get a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) to help pay for this work.

Before you can apply for a DFG you must have your needs assessed by Social Services.

What can the grant be used for?

DFGs can be used to pay for adaptations that make it easier for you to manage at home, for example:

• installing a stairlift so you can use a bedroom or bathroom
• building ramps and widening doors to help you get in/out of your home
• adapting your kitchen so you can prepare and cook food
• adapting your bathroom so you can use it

How much grant is available?

How much you get depends on the cost of the work you need and your financial situation.  If we agree that adaptations are appropriate for you, we will arrange for someone to contact you and carry out a Means Test (this is based on your income and savings) to find out how much grant you are entitled to and if you need to contribute towards the cost of the work. The maximum grant available is £30,000.

Who can apply for a grant?

You can apply for a DFG for yourself or on behalf of a disabled person living in your home. You may be a home owner, a private tenant accommodation or a Council or housing association tenant.

Asessing your needs

Before you can apply for a DFG you must have your needs assessed by an Occupational Therapist (OT).

If you do not already have an OT please contact the Disabled Children's Team (if the disabled person is under 18 years) or  Community Care Services (for anyone 18 years or over). You can do this yourself or you can ask someone who knows your situation (a relative, friend or doctor) to contact us for you - see Contact This Service above.

During our first contact with you we ask you to tell us about yourself and your situation - this helps us to decide if we think we can help you and, if so, how urgent your situation is.  What happens next depends on the outcome of this contact:

• We may ask an OT to carry out an Occupational Therapy Assessment. They will look at a range of options for you, including equipment to help you manage at home or moving to a more suitable property. If they agree that adaptations are the best option for you they will refer you for a Disabled Facilities Grant.
• If an OT assessment is not appropriate, but we think you may be eligible for other social care services we will refer you for a assessment of needs (see 'Related Information' above)
• If you do not qualify for a either of these we will give you information about other services that may help you.

Important things to consider

The Council wants to help as many people as possible get the adaptations they need to help them stay independent.  However, there is a limit to the money available so we need to ensure that grant money is used fairly and efficiently.  To this end: 

• we always look for the simplest, least disruptive and most cost effective adaptation to meet your needs 
• your adaptations should be designed to fit within the existing structure of your home - we will only give a grant for an extension if there are no other options
• grants will not be given for work already started or completed

More Information

You can get more infomation on Disabled Facilities Grants by downloading the documents or using the weblinks below.

Downloads

PDF

Some of the following documents are in pdf format. You can download and install a free PDF reader to enable you to read and print them. Click here to download Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Reader from the Adobe website.

File	Type	Size	Download Time
Disabled Facilities Grant Leaflet	PDF	93 KB	56Kbps Modem: 23 Seconds Broadband : 1 Second
Adapting Your Own Home Leaflet	PDF	892 KB	56Kbps Modem: 3 Minutes Broadband : 18 Seconds

External Links

Reading Borough Council does not necessarily endorse or recommend any of the links or services below. Please note: when you follow these links you will leave this site.

Link	Description
Centre for Accessible Environments	Information and guidance on accessible design
Direct.gov.uk	Information on the Disabled Facilities Grant
Communities and Local Government	Information produced by central Government