Disabled Facilities Grants

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Eligibility criteria

To apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant you or the person you are applying for must:

• Be the homeowner or rent the house from a private landlord
• Intend to live in the property for at least five years
• Need a major adaptation to be able to live in your own home safely and with dignity.

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Assessment and referral

To find out what support you need you can contact or be referred to Community Health and Social Care Direct to ask for an assessment. An Occupational Health Team Manager will decide if you need an assessment.

Someone from the Occupational Therapy Team will come to your home to discuss your concerns and assess your needs. Once the assessment is complete we will:

• Tell you the outcome
• Agree the support you need
• Tell Care and Repair Newcastle what support you need
• Let you know if your needs are priority or routine

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Your status

Once your assessment is complete you will be awarded either priority or routine status.

Priority status will be awarded if:

• You have urgent personal hygiene and toileting requirements
• There are serious moving and handling issues
• There is a serious risk to you or your carer
• If you have a life threatening illness or rapidly degenerating condition
• Other social issues will be affected if we don’t make an adaptation. For example if you need a ramp to access essential day care
• If your need for an adaptation is compounded by other social factors

You will be awarded routine status if:

• An adaptation is necessary and appropriate for your needs
• It is not considered to be a priority need

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Applying for a grant

We will let you know who your Home Improvement Officer is as soon as possible.

We process referrals in the order that we receive them and will let you know who your Home Improvement Officer is as soon as we can.

Your Home Improvement Officer will help you complete the application form including carrying out a means test and home ownership check.

You will need to tell us about your household income including salaries, benefits, pensions, savings and investments.

We will decide if the adaptation is necessary, practical, appropriate and reasonable and let you know if your application has been approved.