Home adaptations grants

[TheLivelyCat]

Hi. I was wondering if anyone has ever had a Home adaptations grant from the council.

Background currently live in a 2 bedroom Home with 2 DDs age 10 and 8. (House is owned, not rented). Due to DD 10 being Autistic, and possibly DD 8, we could really do with a 3rd bedroom.

As DDs currently share a room and its not working well at all.
For example currently DD 10 is going to bed in our bed, then moving to hers around 11pm , she will then either stay there or end up moving again, either to our bed again, DH ends up.in her bed or downstairs on the sofa. The issue is any sounds from DD 8 she wakes up and gets upset, she also go's to bed loud, will jump on her sisters who is sleeping, or turn the lights, play the drums etc, all while her sister is sleeping, resulting in her sister getting understandably upset.

We have tried different methods of dealing with this in different ways, from split bedtimes, bedtimes together, sister having ear defenders at night, consequences, school talking to her, to name a few.

The place we are at is we are all sleep deprived. And playing musical beds isn't workable long term. So we are left with 2 options move to a 3 bed house (very expensive currently double our monthly payments). Or convert our home into 3 bedrooms, which is possible with the space we have, but again money is tight.

DD 10 gets DLA middle rate care, lower mobility, I read that we might qualify for a grant from council, however when I went online is seems to be for wet rooms, stair lifts etc.

Do you mean the disability facilities grant?
I got one to help convert my garage into a downstairs bedroom and ensuite. It was a long process (about a year). Assessed by OT twice and a physio, a council worker and then it went to a panel. They came up with a cheaper option, which could have potentially worked for me, but not for my disabled dc (which they acknowledged). So the compromise was they gave me the equivalent money to what it would cost to do what they proposed.
Its worth speaking to them to see if its worth applying.

Disabled Facilities Grants can create a bedroom. It is not designed to solve overcrowding, but when a bedroom is needed for reasons related to an occupant’s disability, that is different.

They will look to provide the cheapest option. So loft conversions are usually a last resort. The first solution that is usually considered is if you have a dining room, changing that into a bedroom. However, push back on this. They shouldn’t leave you without space for a dining area - the LGO considers it unacceptable. The next thing considered is usually reconfiguring upstairs. And it goes on from there. The assessment of what is necessary and appropriate should take place before the decision on what is reasonable and practicable.

We have had DFGs. The latest one we had took 18 months and was completed in August last year.

My DDs are currently sharing a loft room. It can be spilt into 2 rooms, next door did with theirs. It wouldn't be a huge job, wall, electrics, doors etc. We live in an 1860s small 3 story terrace house. Not ideal but its ours and affordable for us, and close to the DDs schools, 5 minutes to local good secondary school, DDs football training. The issue isn't overcrowding as such, more broken sleep for everyone every night.

Sorry I didn’t mean you were experiencing overcrowding. 4 in a 2 bed wouldn’t be classed at that. I was explaining when a DFG can fund creating a bedroom (e.g. when another bedroom is required for disability reasons) and situations (e.g. overcrowding) it isn’t designed to solve.

If the bedroom can be split, that is probably what they will look to do.

As an aside, have you considered a change of circumstances for DLA?