A Disabled Facilities Grant, usually shortened to DFG, is money from your local council towards adapting your home so you can carry on living there. If getting in and out of your house, using the stairs, or using the bathroom has become difficult, this is the main route to funding the changes that would help.
The grant itself is reasonably well documented. The part that can be less clear is how the person’s functional needs are assessed and translated into an adaptation proposal, which is where Occupational Therapy is often involved.
What a Disabled Facilities Grant covers
For a mandatory DFG, the local housing authority must be satisfied that the proposed works are necessary and appropriate to meet the disabled person’s needs and that it is reasonable and practicable to carry them out, taking account of the property.
Depending on the assessed need, eligible works can include:
Improving access into and around the home, including ramps and door alterations
Enabling access to essential rooms and facilities, such as through a stairlift or changes to the bathroom
Making bathing, toileting, food preparation, heating or lighting safer and more accessible
Providing adaptations that enable a disabled person to care for another person living in the home
A DFG is intended to fund eligible adaptations that meet needs arising from a person’s disability. It is not a general home improvement or repair grant, and the preferred solution is not automatically the solution that will be funded. The authority must consider whether the proposed works are necessary and appropriate and whether they are reasonable and practicable for the property.
Who can apply
An application can be made where the person living in the property is disabled. Depending on the circumstances, the applicant may be the owner, a tenant or a landlord applying in relation to a disabled occupant. The disabled person will normally be expected to intend to live in the property for the relevant grant period, subject to the provisions that apply to their circumstances. DFGs are usually subject to a financial means test for adults. Applications relating to disabled children and young people under 18 are treated differently and are not subject to the parents’ means in the same way.
It is important not to begin adaptation work assuming that a grant will be awarded. Starting work before the council has approved the application can affect eligibility for funding, so the grant process should be clarified first.
How much you can get
The maximum mandatory grant and the financial rules differ between nations and can change over time. Scotland has a different system for funding housing adaptations rather than the same DFG framework used in England and Wales. The limits are changed from time to time, so rather than quote a figure that may be out of date by the time you read this, check the current limits on gov.uk. Depending on your income you may be asked to contribute towards the cost above or within that limit.
In England and Wales, the DFG framework sits within the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. Local authorities also have local policies and discretionary powers that can affect how assistance is delivered, so the practical process may vary from one area to another.
Where the Occupational Therapist comes in
Occupational Therapy is often central to more complex DFG applications because the assessment links the person’s functional difficulties to the physical environment and identifies what change is required to improve safety, access or independence.
The OT’s role is not simply to choose an adaptation. The assessment considers what the person can currently do, what they are unable to do or can only do with difficulty or risk, the outcomes that need to be achieved, and the range of possible ways those outcomes might be met.
For some straightforward adaptations a local authority may use other assessment pathways. For larger or more complex works, an OT assessment is commonly used to provide the functional reasoning and recommendations that inform the authority’s consideration of whether the proposed works are necessary and appropriate. This is the stage where most applications slow down. Council OT services carry long waiting lists in many areas, and people can wait months for an assessment before the grant process has properly started. If someone is struggling on the stairs now, that wait has a real cost.
What the assessment involves
The assessment usually takes place in the person’s home because the property is an essential part of the question. The OT considers mobility and transfers, access into and around the property, use of stairs, bathing and toileting, kitchen tasks and any other activities relevant to the referral. They will also consider the physical environment, including dimensions, floor levels, doorways, circulation space, the existing bathroom or kitchen layout and whether equipment or building work can be accommodated. The aim is to understand both the functional need and the practical options for meeting it.
The recommendation should explain the identified need, the outcome the adaptation is intended to achieve and the clinical reasoning for the proposed solution. Depending on the project, the OT may also provide a specification of functional requirements or work alongside surveyors, grants teams, home improvement agencies and contractors as the design develops. Our guide to straight stairlifts gives an idea of the questions that come up.
Using an independent OT
Where a council waiting list is long, some people arrange an assessment with an independent
Occupational Therapist and submit that report with their application. It can take months off the process.
Check with your council first. Practice varies between authorities, and some will want their own OT to assess or to review an independent report before they act on it. A short call before you commission anything is worth making, and any reputable independent OT should tell you the same.
An independent assessment is also worth considering where the situation is complex, where an application has been refused and you want the reasoning looked at again, or where a case manager or solicitor is coordinating support after an injury. Families arranging support for a disabled child may also find social care, equipment and home adaptations for disabled children a useful starting point.
How we can help
Inclusion’s Occupational Therapists assess adults and children in their own homes and provide clear, evidence-based recommendations for equipment and adaptations. We work with individuals and families as well as local authorities, housing providers and other organisations across the UK involved in adaptation planning.
Our role is to identify functional need, consider proportionate options and explain the clinical reasoning behind the recommendation. Where required, we can also contribute to specifications and liaison with the wider adaptations team.
If you want to talk to someone about an assessment, you can find an Occupational Therapist in your area or get in touch and we will point you in the right direction.