To ask what counts as medical need for council housing?

[Tubbycat]

I am having a hard time finding out what constitutes a medical need for council housing? And how this process works. Do I need to be eligible for PIP/DLA for it to be counted?
It does effect my housing and they have previously advised that I may need to have some adaptations made to a property and more as the condition worsens (it will definitely not get better) but now I don't know if because I lost disability benefits I won't be eligible? Or is it different.
Thanks

I wish I knew... my DS2 (adult) has been on the housing list a few years now... he's autistic (not high functioning..will need support) learning disabled , mild physical disabilities and now a serious medical condition... lowest band! He gets high rate PIP for both, so I don't think it can be based on that, but I have no idea what it IS based on!

You need a housing needs report.

What adaptations will you need ?

Refer to your local social care Occupational Therapy team and they will write the report that will get you on a higher band for rehousing .

The council define it as a medical condition that is either made worse by your current accomodation, or would be improved by moving to different accommodation, or you need to move due to your care needs (e.g., moving closer to family).

It's really subjective though as it's proving that you have medical need.

Sorry to hear that @StillMedusa

I don't want to go through all the drama of getting a doctors note at cost, and specialists letters etc. if my banding is going to stay the same. I already have some agencies working to help me and am imminently going to be homeless without a roof instead of hidden homeless. I couldn't cope with emergency accommodation due to my disability and health conditions and can't get a private rental as can't make any changes. If I am in a ground floor dwelling or house I can cope with my kids without support, but with adaptations. I worry that won't be possible long term otherwise. My condition is likely to get worse, it is usually degenerative. At best it might stay the same if I have all the support and correct adaptations to my home, etc.

Many years ago I used to band housing applications. We would consider a medical need if your current housing made your health worse or you needed adaptions that couldn't be done in your current housing. A doctors letter would suffice stating this.
I presume it is a lot stricter now and probably done by a computer rather than a person with some common sense!

So things like, difficulty waking and their flat was on the third floor or child was autistic and needed their own bedroom. I remember one where a child had a stent fitted and the electric gates at the entrance to the block of flats interfered with it. We never asked for benefit info it was more recommendation from health professionals.

I'm sure my knowledge is well out of date now though so not much use!

I have no idea, we didn't qualify for medical need with DD despite her being on DLA, and the current flat making her situation worse as it's up stairs she can't climb and she's too heavy for me - she's 3.

The flat is also making my mental health worse but that doesn't qualify either.

I'd love to know what does!

you need an OT to write a report.

@EwItsAHooman

All 3 apply. Especially the distance to support/care. But also I cannot make adaptations and have stairs etc. No lift.
I need to be able to sit down in the shower and have rails for the bath. I also need to be able to sit down to cook, do dishes etc. As well as not having to do the stairs. I have managed for a number of years without these things but am having more accidents as a result and worry for the future.

I have had support from OT and adult social care in the past, but their reports didn't qualify me for medical need previously and are now very old reports. They did make some adaptations to one private rental I was in, but they couldn't move with me.

My DP qualified for medical need housing he has a genetic condition that results in a high chance of herniated disks in the spine so far he has had 2 resulting in surgry we where moved to a house with ramp accses stair lift and wet room whuch definitely helps but we waited 7 years for it

I would send as much evidence as you can, if there is anyone who is willing to support your application such as a family member who helps you ask them to wrote you a paragraph or so on what help they give and how they wouldn't need to give it if you had X, Y, Z adaptation.

If they come back to say you don't qualify, appeal.

Hope you manage to get the points you need.

Nobody is able to help me at the moment. So I am exhausted. We eat badly. Housework sometimes just doesn't get done. Social services are questioning my ability, and my mental health due to additional psychological and physical issues caused by the housing. I am often having to take sick days due to minor injuries. And one of my children is staying elsewhere. It's a mess.

I qualified on mental health grounds after the mental health team said I needed to be closer to my family and friends. I guess each association will have different qualifying criteria.

Social services have even said that they would no longer be concerned about the children if our housing issue was solved and we were nearer our support network, but they are leaving me to do the grunt work. Can they do anything? I feel like I am being punished for the councils decisions. I am out of area so had to give up my counselling, physical therapy, mental health team, physical health specialists, understanding GP, a course of treatment, and start two diagnosis processes (referrals and tests) over from scratch. Throughout the process of threatened homelessness and temporary housing, which has been going on for nearly 2 years, my mental health has then suffered. It was previously well managed. My child has developed issues, anxiety/behaviour related, and I have been moved repeatedly causing disturbance to my family and meaning I have not been able to access the healthcare I need. At times I have struggled to even get repeat medications. I have tried to treat as many of these problems through my own money as possible, paying privately where I can to cover the gaps. But my money has been eaten up, I am in debt, and my earning capacity is running out because I am exhausted by all the practical difficulties. Not least, any social support I have to travel to at cost, both financial and physical. I now rarely socialise at all as it's just too difficult to make the journeys. And the council just tell me to be patient.
I'm worried that on top of all of this, now, the stress I've been under means that now my parenting is being questioned by a service I went to initially for support and I am likely to end up unemployed and unable to earn money, leaving me unable to try and fill the gaps financially. I can't see a positive outcome if we can't gain the appropriate housing.

I get extra points for medical needs - and sent my PIP letter - however where I live is not a "popular" area and every council is different. It's not overly hard to get council housing where I live at all - I suppose having the extra points just nudged me a month quicker.

@ZigZagZombie

Oh I wish it was a matter of months for me. I'm worried that my kids will be grown up before we have a home to call our own. It is so disheartening. It's not even like we can go to a different area. Support networks cannot be moved, and also you can't change where your local connection is. At Least not very quickly or easily.

I moved 400 miles... took about 5 months from when I first sent my forms - and they lost them twice! Alls well that ends well though eh!

@ZigZagZombie

I have thought about it, but as I said no way to move support networks too. Sometimes I think it would solve some things but the only thing worse than being where I am is being even further away.

Makes me so frustrated that government after government, social housing has not been built or prioritised. I wish there was another option for people like me, but it would take so much money to change.
I have accepted I will never be rich, and I will never be healthy. I have accepted I am disabled, and my limitations. None of that has been easy. I had a lot of issues to deal with in my life, and it just seems like an absolute joke that the thing that is breaking me is housing. I wish people who supported austerity and lack of public spending especially on social housing understood the impact on people like me who could not try any harder but will just always come short.
Meritocracy stems from the idea that we are all equal. But we are not. Some of us are born at a disadvantage.

Bipolar in my case made me vulnerable to homelessness

@Wheretheresawill1

My family are already classed as homeless. We are not on the street, obviously, but not in long term housing.
I think maybe I need to speak to the psychiatrist. Maybe the problem is that my physical disability is not seen as significant enough but with my mental health having got worse it might now be a significant health concern, all together? I think I was scared before that if I admitted my mental health was bad then it might get social services involved but they are now anyway so no point in being scared of that anymore. It's very much out in the open now because I had to access crisis services.

So why don’t you get an updated OT housing needs report ?

I manage a team of OTs and the mental health impact of inappropriate housing is detailed on the report as well as the physical requirements .