Disabled People - Adapting Your Home

Adapting Your Home

If you need improvements and adaptations to your home to help you continue to live independently there, you can ask the social services department of your local council to do an assessment of your home.

Usually, an occuptational therapist will assess what adaptations are appropriate to meet your needs or the needs of a disabled person who lives in your home. If they agree that you need adaptations to your home, you will be awarded a Disabled Facilities Grant.

Disabled Facilities Grant

Local councils are required by law to give Disabled Facilities Grants to eligible applicants to make houses suitable for disabled people. However, you may be expected to pay some of the costs, depending on your financial circumstances.

Disabled Facilities Grants are available to owners and tenants in both private and social housing subject (in England) to a limit of £25,000.

Grants can be used on any adaptation that will make it easier for the disabled person to get into and around your home, or (for example) to provide suitably adapted kitchen and bathroom facilities or heating and heating control equipment.

More about Disabled Facilities Grants

Extra help that may be available

Sometimes, local councils may provide assistance such as low cost loans as well as grants to private homeowners and others to help renovate, repair or adapt their home.

They may also provide other sorts of assistance, for example helping someone move to more suitable living accommodation if it is satisfied that this would provide a similar benefit to improving or adapting the existing accommodation.

For more information, contact the Environmental Health or Housing Department of your local council.

VAT relief on products and services for disabled people

Disabled people do not have to pay VAT on the cost of some building work involved in adaptations to their homes. If an adaptation qualifies for VAT relief, the work done to prepare for the adaptation and the work done to tidy up afterwards is also free from VAT.

More about VAT relief on products and services for disabled people