Disabled Facilities Grant is a grant to help towards the cost of adapting your home to enable you to continue to live there. A grant is paid when the council considers that changes are necessary to meet your needs, and that the work is reasonable and practical.

What can you use it for?

A grant can be used for adaptations to give you better freedom of movement into and around your home and/or to provide essential facilities within it.

If you are disabled, acceptable types of work include:
- widening doors and installing ramps
- providing or improving access to rooms and facilities - for example, by installing a stair lift or providing a downstairs bathroom
- improving or providing a heating system which is suitable for your needs
- adapting heating or lighting controls to make them easier to use
- improving access to and movement around the home to enable you to care for another person who lives in the property, such as a child

An occupational therapist will look at your circumstances and can recommend the type of adaptation(s) needed. You will need to obtain the support of your occupational therapist before applying for the grant.

How much you can get

The amount paid is usually based on a financial assessment - a 'means test' - of your average weekly income. If you have a partner, your combined income will be assessed jointly. Capital is included in the means test. There is no means testing for families of disabled children under 19.

Means testing will take into account savings above a certain limit. The maximum amount of grant that the council will pay is £30,000 per application less any assessed contribution from you.

If you sell the property

If you sell the property within 10 years of the adaptations we paid for, we will ask you to repay some of the money if the grant was over £5,000. Subject to the grant not being more than £30,000 the maximum we can ask you to repay is £10,000.