Help with adaptations and repairs

Disabled Facilities Grants

If you or someone living in your property is disabled, you may qualify for a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) to make your home more accessible.

A means-tested Disabled Facilities Grant is available to homeowners or privately renting tenants who need adaptations. Applications for a child or young person under 19 are not means tested. If you receive an income-related benefit, there may be no means test.

Eligibility

If you are disabled and live in Cheshire East, and to the best of your knowledge plan on staying in your home for the next five years, then you may qualify.

The applicant must be the owner or tenant of the property. A parent or guardian must apply for the grant if the adaptation is for a child.

The works the grant will pay for

Adaptations that meet one or more of the following criteria:

to make it easier to get into and out of the home
to make the home safe for the disabled person and other occupants
to provide access to, and within, the main family room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom or garden
to improve or provide a heating system, or to adapt heating or lighting controls
to improve access and movement around the home for a disabled carer

The DFG will only pay for the adaptations that we assess as necessary and appropriate and are the most cost effective. An occupational therapist will assess your needs and will work in an incremental way, to make sure that we don't 'over-provide' adaptations and undermine your independence.

Flexible Disabled Facilities Grants

You can top-up the grant to carry out extra works or to adapt your home in a different way, so long as the adaptations meet your assessed needs. We call this a ‘flexible DFG ’.

For example, if your needs can be met within the existing floor space by converting a ground floor room into a bedroom (say, £10,000) but you decide that you want an extension instead (say, £22,000), we would contribute the equivalent value of converting the ground floor room, and you would pay the rest. In this example, we would pay £10,000 as a flexible DFG and you would pay £12,000.

Information needed for the means test

We will need a copy of your most recent award letter if you receive one of the following welfare benefits:

Pension Credit Guarantee
Housing Benefit
Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit (with an assessable income of no more than £15,050)
Income Based Job Seekers Allowance
Income Related Employment and Support Allowance
Income Support
Universal Credit.

Evidence of income

If you don't receive any of these welfare benefits, we will need to see evidence of all income, savings, capital and relevant outgoings.

By income we mean all earnings, pensions, disability benefits, carers benefits, maintenance payments, rental income from tenants or lodgers, student grants and loans, and any other payments that you receive.
By savings we mean all bank, building society and post office accounts, cash savings, premium bonds, stocks and shares, and any other investments.
By capital we mean any land, property or businesses that you own.
By relevant outgoings we mean contributions to student grants and loans and child care charges.

There isn't an upper limit of income or savings to qualify for a grant - for every means test a set of allowances is built up based on individual circumstances; if your income is above your personal allowance, then the amount of grant that will be offered to you will be reduced and you will have to pay for some or all of the work. You can use the Adapt My Home Means Test Calculator to find out how much, if anything, you might have to pay towards the work.

Repayment

If you are a homeowner and you sell or transfer your home within ten years, you may have to repay up to £10,000.

To calculate how much you need to repay, we disregard the original value of any lifts or hoists that we are able to remove and recycle for use by someone else. If the grant still exceeds £5,000, we will disregard the first £5,000 and ask you to pay back the rest of the grant, up to a maximum of £10,000.

For example, if you had a grant for £7,500 you would repay £2,500. If you had a grant for £18,000 you would repay £10,000.

How to apply

There are two ways you can apply for a Disabled facilities Grant:

Contact the Occupational Therapy service on 0300 123 5010 option 2. An occupational therapist or social care assessor will assess your needs and then, if they think an adaptation is needed, they will pass your case to the Housing service.
You can apply directly to the Housing service for a grant. Your application must include details of the premises to be adapted, the work to be carried out (including planning permission and building regulations approval if necessary), at least two itemised quotes from contractors, proof of ownership and/or consent of all owners, and details of any fees to be included in the grant. We can provide you with a standard application form. We will still need to consult with social services about your needs and carry out a means test.