Disabled Facilities Grants for Children Information Sheet

DFGs for disabled children under 19 years of age are not means tested and are not based on a family's ability to pay.

The scope for adaptation is limited by the amount of the Mandatory Grant. The current maximum grant available is £30,000 and this is usually sufficient to fund most adaptations. However, if extending your home is the only way to meet your child's assessed needs then additional funding may be required. The grant will only be approved for work assessed as being necessary and appropriate and reasonable and practical and will be paid when the council is satisfied that the work has been carried out to a satisfactory standard and the adaptations provided meet the needs of the child.

Additional Funding

In certain circumstances where the cost of eligible works exceeds the maximum grant, a Discretionary Grant may be available to top-up the mandatory grant. Usually this is up to £10,000.

Where the cost of the eligible works exceeds the maximum grant of £30,000, the council will use the following method to assess eligibility for a top-up discretionary grant.

Before approving any top-up grant we would normally look at alternative methods of meeting the need, such as moving to a more suitable home. If this was not a practical option then we would consider other options.

Before a top-up grant can be considered the family would need to be means tested in order to assess the financial contribution, if any, that needs to be made by the parents of the disabled child (the exclusion which allows children's applications to proceed without means testing does not apply with discretionary grants). It would be expected that the parents of a disabled child would agree to make their assessed contribution before any further grant funding is considered.

The availability of other sources of funding that the applicant can access, including equity release, charitable funding, re-mortgaging and private loans will also need to be considered before any top-up is approved. Evidence of applying for charitable funding and other sources of funding may need to be provided.

If other sources of funding are not available or a shortfall remains, a Wessex Loan may be available. Wessex work in partnership with Wiltshire Council to provide subsidised loans for a range of schemes including situations such as this. Provision of any top-up discretionary grant would incur a legal charge of 15 years against the property.