Consultation - Disabled Facilities Grant & Housing Assistance Policy 2024

*THIS CONSULTATION HAS NOW CLOSED*

Proposed extra support for disabled people to have home adaptions

We would like to hear your views on our draft Disabled Facilities Grant and Housing Assistance Policy for the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead. We are particularly keen to hear what you think of our plans to introduce additional financial assistance to help disabled people have home adaptations and essential home repairs.

Your feedback is important for us to understand how best to provide financial assistance that meets people’s needs and to continue to help disabled people stay safe and independent in their own homes. We welcome feedback from all residents, carers, landlords, partners organisations/practitioners, voluntary and community organisations and others.

What are we consulting on?

Local authorities must legally provide Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) to all those who are eligible, in order to fund home adaptations to enable independent living. Examples of works include ramps, stair lifts, level access showers and door widening.

In addition to DFGs, local authorities can choose to introduce a Housing Assistance Policy offering a wider range of discretionary financial assistance, such as top-up funding when cost of eligible works exceed the maximum funding allowed through a Disability Facilities Grant alone, which is nowadays more common due to inflation.

Therefore, we are currently consulting on a draft Disabled Facilities Grant and Housing Assistance Policy, which sets out the eligibility criteria, conditions and application processes for various forms of extra assistance.

In addition to a means-tested top-up on Disabled Facilities Grants, the draft policy also includes funding towards costs of moving to a different property where an adaptation is not feasible or economically viable; dedicated support for residents in palliative care towards funding lifts, ramps and new w/c facilities; and a grant to help replace obsolete or defective equipment for a disabled person.

How to share your feedback

We would like to hear your views on the draft policy, particularly the scope and eligibility of our proposed additional discretionary financial assistance. Please see the links on the right to see the draft policy, the scope and eligibility criteria for the new extra assistance schemes, and complete the consultation form to share your feedback.

The consultation closes at 23.59 on Friday 2 February 2024.