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Disabled facilities grant process

Children, young adults, and their parents or carers are not financially assessed for recommended work. This is if they are still eligible for Child Benefit.

If you or your child meet the criteria for major adaptations during the assessment by an Occupational Therapist, your request will be supported and forwarded to the Adaptations Service Delivery Team for consideration of funding through a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG).

A Disabled Facilities Grant is a grant to help towards the cost of adapting your home. This will allow you or your child to continue to live there. A grant is paid when we consider that changes are necessary to meet your needs and that the work is reasonable and practical.

Who can get a Disabled Facilities Grant?

You or your child can claim if you or your child or someone living in your property is disabled and:

  • you or your child or the person on whose behalf you or your child are applying are either the owner or tenant (including licensees) of the property
  • you can certify that the property is your/their only or main residence throughout the grant period (which is currently five years)
  • you can certify that you/they intend to live in the property as your/their only or main residence throughout the grant period (five years)

A landlord may apply on behalf of a disabled tenant.

What you can use it for

A grant can be used for adaptations. This is to give you or your child easy access into and around your home and/or to provide access to essential facilities in your home.
If you or your child 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 through-floor lift or providing a downstairs bathroom or adapted kitchen
  • improving or providing a heating system which is suitable for your/your child’s 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
  • safe environment following a risk assessment either in your home or garden
  • provide access to an existing appropriate outdoor space. (The Secretary of State added this mandatory right).

An Occupational Therapist will look at your/your child’s circumstances and recommend the type of adaptation(s) needed. These will be assessed in line with the Adaptations Service Eligibility Criteria.

How to Appeal

If you or your child are denied a Disabled Facilities Grant or if you are unsatisfied with the amount awarded, you can request an explanation for the refusal or how the grant calculation was made. Please note that there is no formal process for appealing a grant refusal.

If you are still unhappy, you can make a formal complaint. Contact us and ask for our appeals and complaints procedure.

If after having appealed to us, you are still not happy with the outcome, you may register your complaint with the Council Complaints and Representations Team or Local Government Ombudsman.

Approved List of Contractors – Disabled Facilities Grants (Private Sector work)

We are creating a list of approved contractors to carry out adaptation works funded by Disabled Facilities Grants. These works will be done in privately rented or owner-occupied properties.

Contractors will need to enter contracts directly with property owners or tenants who receive the grant. The Council is not involved in the contract and residents are responsible for payment.

There is no guarantee of the amount of business available through this list, as it will depend on individual client requests and needs.

The list will remain open for contractor applications for five years starting from April 1, 2016. However, applications will only be assessed at specific intervals as detailed in the application form.

Types of Work

The approved list will be split into the following types of work. Contractors can apply to be included on the approved list for any or all of the types of work listed.

  1. ramps for disabled householders
  2. shower room adaptations
  3. extensions for disabled householders

Any contractor wishing to apply for the approved list should download the documentation from the YORtender site.

For assistance with registering on the YORtender site and/or accessing the application documents, please email procontractsuppliers@proactis.com.

Discretionary Disabled Facilities

The Disabled Facilities Grant is a capital grant that is available to people of all ages and in all types of accommodation. This includes privately rented and social landlord properties and owner occupier properties. The purpose of the grant is to contribute towards the cost of adaptations which will keep people with different types of disabilities safe and able to live independently in their own home. The grant has clear criteria of how it can be used. This is known as a mandatory grant. It is also possible for each Council to decide if they can use the grant flexibly to support more people if they can afford this. This is called a discretionary grant.

The Council already has a policy for the award of discretionary grants but is reviewing this with the Terms and Conditions that apply to both discretionary grants and mandatory grants and would welcome your feedback. The period of review runs from the 28 August until the 28 September 2024. Feedback received during this time will be considered prior to the revised discretionary grant policy and Terms and Conditions taking effect.   

The documents for review include:

Please send any comments by email to: adaptationsservice@wakefield.gov.uk

In writing to:

Adaptations Service
Civic Centre
Castleford
WF10 4JH

Contact Us

Adaptations Service Civic Centre Castleford WF10 4JH

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