Disabled Facility Grants (DFG) are available to disabled persons who live within the borough of Burnley, for adaptations to provide better facilities and freedom of movement in and around their home.

Where adaptations are necessary, a DFG offers help with the cost of providing these to the home, making it easier for the disabled person to continue living there.

Adaptations can
- Make it easier for you to get in and out of your home
- Make it easier for you to access a bedroom, kitchen, toilet, washbasin or a bath/shower
- Improve or provide a suitable heating system in your home
- Adapt heating and lighting controls to make it easier for you to use them
- Make your home safer for you, and
- Improve access and movement around your home to enable the disabled person to care for another person who lives in the property, such as a spouse or a child.

Amount of grant

All grant applicants, apart from children will be subject to a ‘means test’ to decide how much, if anything, the applicant must contribute to the cost of the works.

The amount of grant given is the amount needed to meet the costs of the works over and above the applicant’s contribution.

There is however, a grant limit for mandatory grants which is currently £30,000, inclusive of fees.  In some cases if the work exceeds £30,000, the Council have a further discretionary grant of a maximum of £10,000 where the work is deemed essential.

Eligible households

Both owner-occupiers and private tenants can apply for a disabled facilities grant. The applicant does not need to be the disabled person, but the applicant should make it clear on whose behalf the application is being made.

Housing Association and Registered Social Landlord tenants should contact their landlord in the first instance.

When applying for a grant, the applicant will be asked to sign a certificate stating that the disabled person intends to live in the property during the grant condition period. The grant condition period is currently five years.

Social Services can be contacted on: Tel 0300 123 6720

The grants process

Disabled facilities grants are available from the Council’s Housing & Development Control Unit. However, you are advised to make your first approach to the Social Services department.

Social Services will arrange for a Community Occupational Therapist or the Senior Medical Officer to assess the needs of the disabled person. If the disabled person is considered a priority case, they are categorised as ‘At Risk’.

If Social Services decide that a grant is appropriate, the case will be referred to the Council’s Housing & Development Control Unit for a disabled facilities grant to be processed. Officers will be available to help you fill in the application forms.