Articles on Medical Diseases and Conditions

Tag: Housing

  • Sheltered housing

    Sheltered housing is accommodation specially built for people who may need some additional supervision or support to that normally available, but who still wish to maintain a substantial degree of independence. There are various forms of supervision and support: some accommodation just has a warden on site who can be contacted in an emergency; other sheltered housing is relatively high dependency where staff assist with meals and personal care, but where there is still some privacy and independence.
    Providers of such accommodation include local authorities, housing associations and private companies, or sometimes a combination of one or more of these. Usually the Housing Department of your local authority will be able to give you information on providers of such housing in your area.

  • Re-housing

    It may be a good idea to look at whether other housing might be better for you. This may well depend on your finances, and on whether you own or rent your current home. Even if you do own your own home, you could still discuss the situation with the Housing Department of your local authority; also, housing associations operating locally may have a special interest in people with disabilities.
    The Housing Department has a responsibility for considering people’s housing problems whether or not they own their own homes. However, how far you get in your request will depend on several factors, including the severity of your problems, housing resources available locally, your financial situation, the demand for the type of housing you may wish to apply for, and any particular local conditions (financial or otherwise) attached to local authority re-housing.
    You can apply to go on the housing register of your Local Authority (which often used to be called the waiting list). This is the main route to permanent housing. It is important that, whatever your circumstances, you go on the housing register if you require permanent accommodation.
    For the register, you will be asked to provide basic details such as your name, the number of people in your household and whether they are under 10 years of age or over 60 years old, and your address. Further information that may be held on the register could include details of any disability involved and specific housing requirements.
    After the council has agreed that you are eligible to go on the housing register, your re-housing priority will be decided. The council will look at your circumstances, your present accommodation, and what kind of accommodation you require, using the information that you give them on the application form and medical form to decide your priority. Under the Housing Act 1996, the council has to give reasonable preference for re-housing to the following people:

    • people occupying unsanitary or overcrowded, or otherwise living in unsatisfactory, housing conditions;
    • people occupying housing accommodation that is temporarily occupied on insecure terms;
    • families with dependent children;
    • households consisting of or including someone who is expecting a child;
    • households consisting of or including someone with a particular need for settled accommodation on welfare on medical grounds;
    • households whose social or economic circumstances are such that they have difficulty in securing settled accommodation.

    Additional preference is given where a member of the household has a particular need for settled accommodation on welfare or medical grounds and who cannot reasonably be expected to find settled accommodation themselves in the near future. This can include those who are particularly vulnerable as a result of old age, physical or mental illness, and/because of a learning or physical disability. If a person in this situation could live independently with the necessary support, but could not be expected to secure accommodation on their own initiative, then they should get additional preference for re-housing.
    The main categories affecting people with a disability as a result of MS are the first and fifth bullets above. The first category could be relevant if you are a disabled person living in inaccessible housing. This could constitute unsatisfactory housing conditions. The fifth category is for people who need settled (i.e. long-term) accommodation on welfare or medical grounds. When assessing medical grounds, the council will be expected to take into account advice from medical professionals. Guidance from the Government to local councils make it clear that this fifth category is designed to apply to disabled people.
    The council may involve Social Services and Health Authorities in assessing whether a household has a particular need for long-term settled accommodation. You can receive reasonable preference for re-housing under more than one category, so you can ‘build up’ your priority for re-housing. For example, you could have priority for re-housing because of your disability as well as because you have dependent children.
    If you are seeking to move either to another house as an owner- occupier, or into the privately rented sector, you will probably realize that there is no central register, or one key source of information, on which properties are ‘disability friendly’. Although recent legislation has required all new houses being built to be more disability friendly than they were, clearly there is enormous variety amongst the existing housing stock in terms of its suitability for people with mobility or other difficulties.
    Finding accessible housing can be difficult. Estate agents do not routinely inspect properties for their accessibility. In order to avoid wasted visits to estate agents or letting agencies, you should write to any in your chosen area setting out briefly the basic requirements you are looking for. Try to make them simple and straightforward and do not necessarily expect them to understand what, for example, a wheelchair user would require. Always be aware of the possibility of adapting a property.
    It is also worth looking in the disability newspapers and local disability newsletters for advertisements from disabled people selling or renting out properties. You could also consider placing an advertisement in one of these asking if anyone has a suitable property for sale or rent. Contact your local disability organization to see if they know of suitable properties in the area, or whether they let you put up an advert in their offices or centre. There may also be a Disabled Persons’ Housing Service, Disabled Persons’ Accommodation Agency or Register in your chosen area. These not-for-profit organizations will be able to help you find suitable property to buy or rent.

  • Getting help for housing repairs

    If you are living in an older property, or even if you are not, there may well be an issue about the property needing repairs. As we have seen in the section above, the possibility of financial support of adaptations to your property might well be linked, amongst other things, to its current state of repair.
    If you are not able to pay for repairs yourself, you may be able to get a renovation grant from the council. This is likely to be the case if your home needs extensive repair or improvement work, or if you lack a basic facility such as an indoor toilet or a bath or shower. Home owners and some tenants, although not council tenants, can apply for a renovation grant. You should not assume that you will automatically receive a grant, as they are awarded at the discretion of the Local Authority. The grant is subject to a means test, which assesses how much you will have to contribute towards the cost of works. You will have to contact your local Housing Department for further information and an application form.
    Grants of up to ?2000 can be made, or up to ?4000 for separate applications for housing repairs in any 3 years. Home repair assistance is a discretionary grant. The main purpose for which the grant is available is smaller-scale, but still essential, repairs or adaptations. This grant is open to home owners and tenants of private landlords and housing associations. Home repair assistance need not involve an occupational therapist assessment or a means test, although practices vary from one area to another. It is important that applicants ask the council for guidelines on who has priority for the grant in their area before they start putting information together for the application.

  • Getting help for housing adaptations

    One of the issues that may be a major consideration to someone with MS as well as those living with them, is the need – at some point – to consider adaptations to their home to ensure that everybody can live comfortably and easily in it. A variety of adaptations may prove necessary, although each individual person may well require a different pattern of such adaptations. They are likely to range from installation of stairlifts, to adaptations to living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms and toilets, to making access easier both within the property, as well as into and out of it. Obviously many possible adaptations will not only depend on your own disabilities, but also on the nature and state of the property that you are currently living in.
    If you consider that you cannot continue to live in your current house without changes to the accommodation, there is a grant called the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) for which you may be eligible. This is available for owner occupiers, private and housing association tenants, and landlords, and is given by the department of the local council responsible for housing. The person with MS need not personally make an application, for others can do this for them, although they have to demonstrate their right to do so. The maximum mandatory amount that can be awarded is ?20,000, although local authorities have discretion to award more than this.
    Mandatory and discretionary awards are given for different purposes. Mandatory grants can be used to:

    • facilitate access to and from the property concerned;
    • make the property safe for those living in it;
    • ensure the disabled person can access the principal family room;
    • adapt the kitchen to enable the cooking and preparation of food independently;
    • provide access to a room used for sleeping;
    • provide or improve access to the toilet, wash basin, bath
    (and/or shower);
    • improve or provide a heating system in the property for the disabled person;
    • adapt heating, lighting or power controls to make them easier to use;
    • improve access and movement around the home to enable a disabled occupant to care for another person who normally lives with them.

    Discretionary awards can be used to adapt the property to make it more suitable for the accommodation, welfare or employment of the disabled occupant.
    There is a means test – both of the disabled person and what are called
    ‘relevant persons’ – for this Disability Facilities Grant, and you might have to contribute to the cost, depending on your financial situation. For most people with MS, the relevant person will be their spouse/partner – in addition to themselves, or a parent(s) if the person is under 18. The financial assessments are quite complicated and take into account savings (above ?5000), as well as weekly income, set against an assessment of needs as recognized by allowances that the person with MS may have. RADAR has produced an information pack entitled Meeting the Cost of Adaptations which you may find helpful.
    If you feel that you cannot afford what the local authority indicates you should contribute, then you can ask the Social Ser vices department to make a ‘top up’ payment or loan. The department can also help with top-up funding for a DFG if the cost is above ?20,000 and the council housing department is only giving a grant up to the
    ?20,000 limit for mandatory Disability Facilities Grants. Such (albeit discretionary) support has been important to many disabled people who could not obtain full funding for adaptations through their Disability Facilities Grant.
    Note that certain adaptations are zero rated for VAT purposes, i.e. the builder will not charge you 17.5% VAT on top of the bill for certain jobs, saving you about a sixth of the bill. Such zero rating will normally include the construction of ramps, widening of doorways and passages to facilitate access by a disabled person; installation of a lift between floors to facilitate access, including maintenance, repair and restoration of decorations, and works to bathrooms and toilets to facilitate use and access by the disabled occupant and any goods supplied in connection with this.
    Overall, in deciding whether to make an award, the housing department of the local authority will consider, in consultation with social services, whether the works are necessary and appropriate to the needs of a disabled person. They will also consider whether the adaptations are reasonable and practicable taking into account the age and condition of the property. This might lead to alternative possibilities being considered. These might include urging the disabled occupant to seek a renovation grant to make the property fit, considering whether a reduced level of adaptations to the property would be feasible, and finally considering with the disabled person the option of re-housing. One organization offering help in relation to agencies who can assist you on these issues is Care and Repair.

  • Housing and home adaptations

    Housing issues can become particularly difficult for people with MS and their families. This may be because funds to support your existing accommodation as you have become used to it become less through having to work part-time or indeed having to give up work altogether. Of course, other difficulties, especially related to decreasing mobility, may mean that your existing accommodation, or a significant part of it, could become harder and harder to manage without adaptation.
    Most people with MS will wish to stay in their own homes. Factors affecting any decisions to stay or move will include your income, how easy the home is to adapt, and what kinds of services are available from the local Social Services and Housing Departments.