Find out more about amendments made to the housing assistance policy.
All assistance under this section of the policy will be delivered under the same principles and guidelines as the Mandatory Disabled Facilities Grant and is subject to funding be available.
The scheme aims to help the vulnerable members of the community where the Mandatory DFG is insufficient to cover the full cost of the works or where the works are out of the scope of the legislation but by completing them there would be demonstrable savings to the wider public purse and clear benefits to the applicant and/or their family/carers.
The grants would be funded from the DFG budget from a dedicated part of the budget held solely for discretionary purposes. The value of this budget will be set annually.
Those who have been assessed as eligible to apply for mandatory DFG assistance and towards the mandatory designed scheme to meet identified needs.
There will be no additional formal means test.
Discretionary Top-Up Assistance (DTUA) may be awarded and will be subject to the availability of resources. Where the additional funding required is less than £20,000 (i.e., up to £50,000 in total) then the decision will be based upon evidence provided by the relevant officers from occupational therapy and the DFG Team to the appropriate Divisional Director.
However, if additional funding is required over £20,001 then it must be presented to a Decision-Making panel which would include a Senior Representative from Adults and Children’s Occupational Therapy, and alternative options, such as moving, would need to have been demonstrated to have been explored in full, including contributions from landlords for housing association or private tenants. The funding application would then be presented to the appropriate Divisional Director responsible for the service for final approval.
For owner-occupiers DTUA will be registered, in full and in perpetuity, as a local land charge against the property and will be recovered on the sale or transfer of the property, subject to rules regarding exempt sales.
Note – this is separate from the £10,000 recoverable DFG which expires at 10 years from certification of works completion.
The person must be a permanent resident of Torbay and the property must be their permanent address. Conditions restricting future use and ownership of the property – the following additional conditions will apply where we have made an award of DTUA.
If the applicant for DTUA is a tenant then we will liaise with the appropriate landlord to explore whether alternative funding options, such as funding from the landlord and/or moving to alternative suitable accommodation are an option, before approving DTUA.
Applications for DTUA will be considered once works have already been started and unforeseen costs arise if the scheme is a Mandatory Scheme.
Where an applicant is pursuing a ‘preferred’ scheme and has received the maximum eligible grant funding then applications for DTUA will not be considered.
A maximum of one application for DTUA will be considered in any 5-year period.
Further information on how to apply for an apply for assistance can be found on the Council website
Funding will be awarded on a case-by-case basis as outlined above.
The means test, as set out in the Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 has remained unchanged since the introduction of disabled facilities grants in their current form in 1996. It is widely accepted as being out of date and does not consider the outgoings of a household when assessing a contribution towards disabled facilities grant. The result is that, on occasion, anomalous results can occur which mean that vulnerable people are unable to proceed with the adaptations they need to help them live at home due to an unaffordable contribution level. The 2018 Disabled Facilities Grant Review recommended that the means test be overhauled, and this is currently proposed in the Social Care White Paper 2021, but until changes are made it is proposed that discretionary contribution assistance is provided.
The aim of this scheme is to help the vulnerable members of the community where the applicant is unable to proceed with adaptations because of a means tested contribution which means that they are at significant risk in their home and/or the failure to complete adaptations will result in increased costs to the wider Social Care budgets. It gives the Council the ability to pay these contributions from discretionary funding therefore enabling works to go ahead and the applicant to remain living in their home.
The grants would be funded from the Disabled Facilities Grant Budget from a dedicated part of the budget held solely for discretionary purposes. The value of this budget will be set annually.
Those who have been assessed as being eligible to apply for mandatory disabled facilities grant assistance.
There will be no additional formal means test.
Client Contribution Support (CCS) support, up to a maximum of £10,000, may be awarded where the following conditions are met:
Any value of CCS funding awarded, will be registered, in full, as a local land charge against the property and will be recovered on the sale or transfer of the property, subject to rules regarding exempt sales.
Note – this is separate to the £10,000 recoverable disabled facilities grant which expires at 10 years from certification of works completion.
The person must be a permanent resident of Torbay and the property must be their permanent address.
Conditions restricting future use and ownership of the property – the following additional conditions will apply where the Council has made an award of CCS.
Further information on how to apply for an apply for assistance can be found on the Council website
Funding will be awarded on a case-by-case basis as outlined above
The preparation of a mandatory disabled facilities grant application often incurs necessary professional fees. however, funding under a mandatory disabled facilities grant can only be paid once a grant has been approved. this can result in an applicant being liable for abortive costs if the application cannot proceed due to unforeseen circumstances or the Council is left with costs it cannot pay.
The purpose of this grant is to enable the council to pay, on behalf of an applicant any abortive professional fees incurred where an application for disabled facilities grant cannot proceed due to unforeseen circumstances, such as the death of the applicant or a significant change in need meaning that adaptations are no longer appropriate.
Where an applicant changes their mind regarding an adaptation once an application is at an advanced stage and incurring fees, then this grant would not be available, and the outstanding costs would remain the liability of the applicant.
The grants would be funded from the disabled facilities grant budget from a dedicated part of the budget held solely for discretionary purposes. The value of this budget will be set annually.
Those who have been assessed as being eligible to apply for mandatory disabled facilities grant assistance.
There will be no additional formal means test.
Professional Fee Grant support will be available up to a maximum of £2,500
There will be no land charge placed against the property for professional fee grant awards.
The person must be a permanent resident of Torbay and the property must be their permanent address.
A maximum of one application for assistance will be considered in any 5-year period.
The Council may consider additional applications under exceptions circumstances. These cases would be reviewed by the Adaptations Panel for final decision.
How to apply?
Further information on how to apply for an apply for assistance can be found on the Council website
Funding will be awarded on a case-by-case basis as outlined above
The purpose of this grant is to assist owner-occupies in Torbay who are applying for a Disabled Facilities Grant and to elimination category one hazards in order to support works being carried out through the mandatory disabled facilities grant.
The grants would be funded from the disabled facilities grant budget from a dedicated part of the budget held solely for discretionary purposes. The value of this budget will be set annually
Funding will be available subject to the following eligibility criteria:
or
There is no formal means test to assess a contribution, but applicants must meet the financial criteria set out above.
A maximum of £5,000 is available under this scheme.
All funding will be registered, in full, as a local land charge against the property and will be recovered on the sale or transfer of the property, subject to rules regarding exempt sales.
Note – this is separate to the £10,000 recoverable disabled facilities grant which expires at 10 years from certification of works completion.
The person must be a permanent resident of Torbay and the property must be their permanent address.
Conditions restricting future use and ownership of the property – the following additional conditions will apply where the Council has made an award of this grant.
Only a single award of this grant will be available in any five-year period.
Further information on how to apply for an apply for assistance can be found on the Council website
Funding will be awarded on a case-by-case basis as outlined above
The aim of the scheme is to help the vulnerable members of the community where it is not possible to adapt their current home, but by supporting them to move to more suitable accommodation there would be demonstrable savings to the wider public purse and clear benefits to the applicant and/or their family/carers.
Grants would be funded from the disabled facilities grant budget. This is subject to the council’s usual financial monitoring processes. If usual financial monitoring processes identifies there is only enough disabled facilities grant budget available to meet the mandatory disabled facilities grant assistance requirements, then the discretionary flexibility will not be utilised for any full or part year where that situation is applicable.
Those eligible for mandatory disabled facilities grant assistance.
There will be no formal means test.
Funding may be available to assist the disabled person to move to a more suitable property where it is impracticable to adapt or more cost effective than adapting the current home of a disabled person to make it suitable for their present or future needs, even though the new property may need some adaptation.
Criteria for consideration in cases of help-to-move/relocate; (this is not an exclusive or exhaustive list as other factors may become apparent with experience):
The disabled facilities grant team is required to consult the OT service to consider what assistance would be necessary and appropriate for the applicant, and then apply a test of what is reasonable and practicable in the circumstances of the property. The service must consider viable alternative solutions which appear more cost effective.
Such solutions may include contributions towards costs incurred as part of an alternative house-purchase and moving to an already adapted or more economically adaptable and suitable property. Funding will not be given towards the purchase price of an alternative property but may be provided towards legal and moving costs.
Moving and house purchase finance will be determined on a case-by-case basis determined by:
or that moving is purely an occupier choice or because of a landlord’s refusal to permit adaptation.
Mandatory disabled facilities grant of up to £30,000 is available for adaptations in properties residents have moved to (within the local area only) but may be reduced by any assessed contributions.
Help to move assistance is available to owner-occupiers and to tenants’ subject to individual determination.
As there are too many variables to set a fixed policy on awards for moving or buying property, each case will be determined on its merits subject to resources by recommendation from the appropriate Divisional Director responsible for the service, sufficient discretionary authority to approve works of that value.
Help to Move funding may be awarded and will be subject to the availability of resources. A maximum of £5,000 may be available to support costs solely associated with moving home.
There will be no land charge registered against the property.
The person must currently be a permanent resident of Torbay and the property must be their current and intended permanent address.
A maximum of one application will be considered in any 5-year period.
Further information on how to apply for an apply for assistance can be found on the Council website
Funding will be awarded on a case-by-case basis as outlined above
[1] For the purposes of this grant, the term ‘Savings’ refers to any cash, bank, or other financial institutions accounts, shares or capital that is considered as part of the Mandatory DISABLED FACILITIES GRANT means test. It is not limited to bank ‘savings’ accounts.