Introduction

This Factsheet is about complaints relating to Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs). It should be read together with our ā€˜How to Complainā€™ webpage, available on the ā€˜Making A Complaintā€™ tab.

The DFG is a mandatory council grant that helps to meet the costs of adapting a disabled personā€™s home so that they can continue to live there as independently as possible. Tenants, owner occupiers and landlords who have a disabled tenant can apply for a DFG. The DFG is a means tested grant to disabled adults ( means testing does not apply to parents of dependent disabled children or young people under 19). This means depending on your income, savings and outgoings, you might have to make a contribution towards the cost of the works. In Wales, the maximum DFG award is currently Ā£36,000.

Examples of the sorts of adaptations the DFG covers include:

  • Widening doors and installing ramps or stairlifts
  • Kitchen and bathroom adaptations for eg. walk in showers
  • Extensions (possibly for a downstairs bathroom and/or bedroom)
  • Installing a suitable heating system that meets the disabled personā€™s needs
  • Adapting the controls on the heating system or lighting so they are easier to use.

Before a formal DFG application is considered, a social services departmentā€™s occupational therapist (OT) will usually need to assess the disabled personā€™s needs, including whether the works are ā€œnecessary and appropriateā€. The OTā€™s recommendations are normally put to the Housing Department who administers the DFG. The council will then have to decide whether it is ā€œreasonable and practicableā€ to do the works.

Depending on the OTā€™s recommendations, there are a number of other checks that a council may carry out at the initial enquiries stage. Your local council should be able to tell you more, including whether you have to complete a pre-application DFG enquiries form. Once this stage is satisfactorily completed, you normally have to submit a formal DFG application along with other documents. Provided the council has received all the relevant information, legally it has to approve a completed DFG application within six months of its receipt.

 

What we can do

We can look at:

  • Whether there have been unreasonable delays by the Council during the pre and post DFG application stages, including arranging an OT assessment
  • Where a DFG application is refused, whether the council has considered all the information the applicant submitted and carried out any internal appeals process correctly;
  • Whether the council has carried out its inspection/monitoring functions adequately (the council is not usually responsible for the day to day supervision of a contractor/builderā€™s work).

 

What we cannot do

We cannot:

  • Deal with legal disputes between you and the contractor carrying out the work
  • Make the council provide a higher award of DFG if the decision has been properly made.

 

Issues to bear in mind

  • If you are a Housing Association tenant or a tenant of an Association created following a stock transfer, you should check whether your landlord operates its own scheme for adapting its properties
  • When deciding whether the work is reasonable and practicable, the age and condition of the property are some of the factors considered. For example, the propertyā€™s layout may mean it is not possible to fit a stair lift or the property may be in a dilapidated state and need substantial repairs. In such cases, the council may decide it is more cost effective for a person to move to more suitable alternative accommodation
  • Sometimes, additional work is required which takes the cost above the maximum DFG award. The council has the discretion to provide top-up assistance, sometimes in the form of a loan. Whilst a council does not have to provide discretionary assistance, it should consider an application for such assistance
  • Although it does not have to do so, a council has the discretion to provide a discretionary DFG for adaptations falling outside the mandatory DFG.

 

Further information

You can find further information regarding DFGs in the following locations:

www.gov.uk/disabled-facilities-grants;

National Assembly for Wales ā€œHousing for Disabled Children and Familiesā€Ā Ā www.assemblywales.org/qg12-0013.pdf

Examples of cases that we have looked at can be found on our website, under the ā€˜Publicationsā€™ tab on the ā€˜Our Findingsā€™ page.

 

 

Contact us

If you are unsure whether we would be able to look into your complaint, pleaseĀ contact usĀ on 0300 790 0203Ā orĀ ask@ombudsman.wales

Also available in Welsh.