What are Disabled Facilities Grants?
If you or someone living with you in your property is disabled
then you may qualify for a disabled facilities grant (DFG), towards
the cost of providing adaptations and facilities to enable a
disabled person to remain living independently in their own
home.
Who can apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant?
Any person who has a disability and requires adaptations to
their property in order to remain living independently can apply
for the grant.
An applicant must either be the owner of a dwelling, or be a tenant
and be able to provide the local authority the necessary ‘owners’
or ‘tenants’ certificate, confirmation from the owner that they are
happy with work being undertaken within their property is also
required.
How is the grant calculated?
Although Disabled facilities grants have to be provided by the
Council, you may not automatically qualify for a grant, as we have
to assess both yours and your partners incomes and savings through
a means test.
The means test looks at the income and capital of the disabled
person and their spouse or partner. It assesses how much they
would initially contribute to the cost of the works.
The test calculates the average weekly incomes, taking into account
any savings above £6,000.00 and certain state benefits. Any
benefits, which specifically recognise a person’s disability, are
ignored. These values are set against an assessment of basic
needs, which are recognised by specific premiums and allowances as
set down by the Secretary of State.
If the disabled person’s resources are less than this assessment,
then initially they will not need to contribute to the cost of the
works. If the disabled person is in receipt of income support
or income based jobseekers allowance, then there initial
contribution towards the cost of any works will also be nil.
If the disabled person’s resources are more than the assessment,
then a proportion of their income will be used to calculate the
size of the amount of funding that they could afford to finance the
works. This ‘affordable loan’ is then deducted from the cost
of the works.
In the majority of applications there will be an additional amount
of contribution in cases where the cost of work quoted by the
builder exceeds the cost calculated by our department or, where the
cost of work exceeds the £30,000.00 maximum grant limit.
The approved cost of the works is the amount that the Council
calculate as being reasonable to be incurred, having regard to the
work being carried out. If the calculated contribution were
to exceed or equal the approved cost of the works, no grant would
be offered.
Please note it is a condition of the Disabled Facilities Grant that
upon any future sale of the property, the cost of works above
£5,000 will be repayable up to a maximum of £10,000.
How do I apply for the grant?
In the first instance contact should be made with the
Occupational Therapists at Kidderminster Health Centre on 01562
820091. They will need to undertake an assessment of your
needs.
Once you have been assessed they then issue a referral to Social
Services who can process the request and pass it to our department
so that we can then make an inspection of the property and send out
the necessary application forms.
Further information
Read the
Private Sector Housing Assistance Policy 
(262K)
Should you require any further information please contact
Customer Service on 01562 732928 or the Councils Private Sector
Housing Team at the following address:
Wyre Forest District Council
Planning and Regulatory Services Directorate
Private Sector Housing
Duke House
Clensmore Street
Kidderminster
Worcestershire
DY10 2JX
