Disabled Facilities Grants

in the London Borough of Barnet

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Introduction

This leaflet will give you more information about Disabled Facilities Grants (sometimes just called a DFG) in Barnet.

It explains:

  • what a DFG is for
  • who can qualify for a grant
  • the process for getting a grant
  • who does what in the process.

If you have a disability – or if you have a disabled child – it may help you to have an adaptation to your home. An adaptation may be something quite simple, such as a handrail, or something more major, for example, a fully adapted bathroom. If you need a major adaptation to your home because of your disability, or your child’s disability, you may be able to get a DFG to help meet the cost.

Barnet Council’sAdults and CommunitiesDelivery Unit is responsible for providing social care services. To decide if you qualify for the servicesyou will have a ‘social care assessment’. To find about more about the eligibility criteria we use, please visit our website – or call Social Care Direct on 020 8359 5000 for a copy of our “Eligibility Criteria for Social Care Support”.

The assessment may show that we can meet your needs by, for example, some special equipment such as a bath seat. However, if it is decided that the most appropriate and cost-effective way to meet your needs is by an adaptation to your home, then we may recommend that you apply for a DFG.

What is a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) for?

DFG’s are provided by the London Borough of Barnet’s Private Sector Housing Service. If you apply for a DFG, the council will look at your income and savings before deciding if you will receive a grant. The grant must be for an adaptation to your home that is:

  • necessary and appropriate; and
  • reasonable and practicable.

For example, the grant could be to make it easier to:

  • get in and out of your home
  • get to your bedroom, bathroom, living room or kitchen
  • use the toilet, bath or shower
  • prepare and cook food
  • get around your home to help you care for another person or
  • use your garden.

It might be used to aid or assist your disability by:

  • installing a suitable heating system or improve the one you have
  • helping you control lighting, power and heating or
  • making your home safe for you and other people who live in it.

Who can qualify for a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG)?

You can apply for a DFG whether you own your home, or rent it, or if you are a landlord. The grant must be for the benefit of someone who is registered as a disabled person, or who would qualify to be registered. Their disability might be caused by physical illness or injury. It could be a major sight, hearing or speech impairment, or it could be a mentalhealth problem or a learning disability. You can apply if you are a disabled person, the landlord of a disabled person, or if you live with a disabled person in a property that you own.

If you rent your home from a Housing Association, you need tofirst approach your housing department to discuss the adaptation work as they may carry out the works. If you live in a Barnet Homes property, it will pay for the cost of the adaptation works which are recommended following your Occupational Therapy assessment.

How much money couldI get?

The most money you can receive is £30,000.

If the cost of the work (including a surveyor or architect’s fees) is more than £30,000, Private Sector Housing may be able to help you with the extra cost. This will depend on your individual circumstances (Please see ‘Top Up’).

If you are an owner-occupier, and you receive a DFG for more than £5,000, we will place a land charge on the property for 10 years. This means that if you sell the property within 10 years, you would have to pay the money back to the London Borough of Barnet, up to a maximum of £10,000.

What will the grant cover?

As well as the cost of the building work you can apply for the costs of ‘reasonable fees’, for example, if you employ your own surveyor or architect. However, until you have formal approval for a grant, you are responsible for any fees. This includes any fees that need to be paid ‘up front’, that is, before any work is done.

You should consult an officer in Private Sector Housing before you employ an architect or surveyor, so you can check what level of fees you can claim as part of the DFG.

You should not start any work on adapting your home until you have final approval for the grant. You cannot normally get a grant for work that has already been carried out.Normally, if you (or a relative) do the work we will only accept invoices for materials or services you have bought and not thelabourcost, i.e. the cost of doing the work.

Will I need to pay any of the cost?

If you are aged 19 or over, the DFG is means-tested. This means it will depend on your income and savings. The amount of DFG you could get depends on a ‘test of resources’, which means looking at your income and savings to decide how much you have to pay towards the cost of the work. This is usually called your ‘client contribution’.

If you receive any of the following benefits, then you will not usually have to make a contribution:

  • Income Support
  • Income base Job Seekers Allowance
  • Guaranteed Pension Credit (not Savings Pension Credit)
  • Housing Benefit
  • Child tax credit (with a household income of less than £16,190)
  • Working tax credit (with a household income of less than £16,190).

If you are not receiving any of these benefits the Private Sector Housing Service will carry out an informal ‘test of resources’ when we first discuss the adaptation with you. That will show you how much you will probably need to pay.

If you then apply for a DFG, they will carry out the official ‘test of resources’. If your financial circumstances change between the informal and the official test of resources, the amount of grant you actually get may be different from the first estimate.

If the test of resources shows you must pay the whole cost of the adaptation work yourself, you may still benefit if you apply for what is called a ‘nil’ grant. This means that if you need to adapt your home again within 10 years (or five years if you are renting your home), your contribution to the previous work can be taken into account. For this to happen, you must have filled in the original grant application correctly, and carried out the work to a satisfactory standard.

If you are aged under 19, and your parent or carer receives Child Benefit for you, their income and savings will not be taken into account when they apply for a DFG.

‘Top up’ to a DFG

If the cost of the adaptation work is more than the £30,000 DFG limit, and you think you cannot afford to pay the difference and have explored all other options, Private Sector Housing may be able to help you with a ‘top up’of up to a further £20,000 as long as funds are available.

If you are applying for help with the cost and are 19 or over, you will need to have a ‘test of resources’. This means we look at your income and savings to see if you qualify for this additional help.

If you are applying, you will need to have lived at the home to be adapted for at least two years or:

  • have stopped working to look after a disabled member of your immediate family
  • leaving the home will adversely affect the schooling or care package of the disabled person
  • the grant is to meet the needs of a child placed with you for adoption or long term fostering

If you receive financial help to pay a ’top up’ where the total cost of the work is more than £30,000, we will place a land charge on your property which is interest free. This means that if you sell or lease your property within 10 years from the time the grant is completed, then we may claim the money back. The decision to claim back the money will depend on the reasons why you are selling the property. Further information can be provided on how we make this decision.If you are in any doubt about how a land charge affects you, you should get independent legal advice.

If you own the home, the applicant or a member of the immediate family will need to live in the home for five years after the ‘top up’ is given.

Alternative housing options and relocation

Where you live can have a great impact on the quality of your life. If you have a disability, having adaptations to your home is one way of making sure that your home meets your needs. However, it is a long process and can be costly. There is also likely to be some disruption while the work is being carried out. So before you start on the adaptation process it is worth considering all your options carefully. When they carry out your assessment, your occupational therapist (sometimes called an OT) will talk this through with you and help you consider other housing options.

Sometimes it is not possible to adapt your home, maybe due to its age, size or location, because the cost of the adaptations may be very high or it’s a leasehold or tenanted home and the owner might not give their permission. As long as funds are available, the Private Sector Housing Service may be able to help with the cost of moving to a more suitable home or one that can be adapted more easily by offering a relocation grant. If you are buying a home in Barnet, we may be able to help with relocation and a DFG plus a ‘top up’ and if the new home is outside of Barnet then the help may be for a relocation grant only.

If you are applying as an owner, then the new home you are considering buying will need to:

  • more closely meet the needs of the disabled person or be easier to adapt to meet their needs and
  • the cost of adapting it will be more cost effective and the total cost of the move and the adaptations will not be more than £50,000. This includes a maximum DFG of £30,000, £10,000 relocation and £10,000 ‘top up’.
  • you will need to ensure that you as the applicant or a member of the immediate family will live in the home for fiveyears after the relocation costs are paid.

You will need to have a ‘test of resources’. We will pay you the money after the move is completed and when you have provided to us the invoices for the costs of the move you are claiming. We can give up to £10,000 to help with the cost of the move and this can be used towards your cost of:

  • professional fees, such as estate agent/solicitors
  • removal costs
  • written reports by a qualified occupational therapist and a surveyor that the proposed new home is suitable for the disabled person
  • disconnection and re-connection of services, such as water and gas.

If you receive financial help towards the cost of moving, we will place a land charge on your property This means that if you sell or lease the new home you have purchased within 10 years from the time the grant is completed, then we may claim the money back. The decision to claim back the money will depend on your reasons why you are selling the property. Further information can be provided on how we make this decision.If you are in any doubt about how a land charge affects you, you should get independent legal advice.

Removing an adaptation - landlords

If you are a private landlord who gives permission for an adaption for one of your disabled tenants, the Private Sector Housing service is able to offer a one off up front payment of £1,000 to assist with the cost of removing it once the tenant leaves.

Alternative and reduced schemes

To give more choice and flexibility, at your request as an applicant you may vary the works recommended for DFG funding. There are two options - an alternative or reduced scheme.

An alternative scheme is where you wish to carry out more works than the OT has recommended, such as a ground floor extension or convert a loft or garage. These works will need to be possible in the property, supported and approved by the OT and fully meet the disabled person’s needs.

We will pay an amount equal to the cost of the works originally recommended by the OT. The additional costs for the alternative works will need to be paid by you. We will tell you how much we will pay and you will then need to come back to us when you have worked out the details of your proposed scheme.

A reduced scheme is where you chose not to carry out all of the works recommended by the OT, i.e. less works. The OT will explain to you the implications and risks of declining some of the recommended works so you are fully informed in making your choice. Written consent for a reduced scheme is by the OT, OT Manager and the disabled person.

If you decide to go ahead with a reduced scheme and then at a latter date apply for further DFG funding, you will need to know that:

  • any of the works you excluded which are then included in the new application will only be paid up to the maximum amount of grant which was available when you originally made the application and accepted the reduced scheme.
  • this funding will be available to cover the work from this original scheme for five years from the date your grant was approved

Roles and responsibilities – who does what

The person applying

If you are the person applying for a grant, you will need to tell Adults and Communities or Children’s Services, and the Private Sector Housing Service, whether you want to deal with the grant application and building work yourself, or if you want someone else to deal with it for you (an ‘agent’). Your OT, or your officer in Private Sector Housing, can give you advice and information on how to find a suitable agent.

You (or your agent) are responsible for:

  • applying for the DFG
  • employing surveyors, architects and any specialist technicians
  • getting cost estimates for the work
  • arranging for the work to go ahead after we approve the grant, and
  • arranging to pay for the work.

A grant is an agreement made between you as the applicant, and the council. It is not a contract between the council and the building contractor or agent so we will not be responsible for supervising the work or making sure it is done to the proper standard. You, or your agent, will be responsible for making sure the work is properly carried out.

However, you can if you wish ask us to pay the grant money direct to the contractor or agent on your behalf.

You will need to make sure that you receive from the builder any instruction manuals for equipment that they have installed and also warranties for any specialist equipment, such as a stair lift, through floor lift, ceiling track hoist or water closo-mat. Once the works are completed, you will need to arrange and pay for any future repairs or maintenance of your adaptation and equipment (when the warranty periods have expired) as these costs cannot be paid for by a DFG.

An agent

The main types of agents involved in this work would be surveyors, architects, builders, and providers of specialist disability equipment.

If you use an agent you should check that they are a member of an appropriate professional organisation, such as the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, The British Institute of Architectural Technicians, or the Royal Institute of British Architects.

We recommend that you use a builder who specialises in adaptation worksand we can provide details of builders through the Barnet Care and Repair Agency.

Your agent will do some, or all, of the following on your behalf:

  • give advice on whether the work is technically possible
  • provide drawings and detailed specifications for the work
  • get estimates for the work
  • get all the necessary planning and building permissions
  • arrange for site visits to check the progress of the work
  • make sure the work is carried out to a satisfactory standard
  • advise about guarantees and ongoing maintenance once the work is completed.

You should make sure you have a clear agreement with your agent, setting out in detail what they have agreed to do, and what they will charge.

The Barnet Care and Repair Service

The Barnet Care andRepair Service specialises in working with older people and disabled people of all ages in the Barnet area, to help them live independently and safely in their own homes.