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3. Disabled Facilities Grants overview

Finding local service and support

If you, or someone who lives with you, is disabled, you may be able to get help to make life easier and safer.

By answering a few questions about your current situation, you can find out about equipment, services and support to help you live independently. Don’t worry, you will not be asked your name, or address and none of the information you give will be kept.

Self-help tool to find local services and support

Apply for a Council Tax Disabled Facilities Discount

We also have a new web form called Apply for a Council Tax Disabled Facilities discount please go to this page for more information and to apply for this discount to your Council Tax bill.

Who is entitled to the grant?

If you are disabled, you may be entitled to a mandatory Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG). The grant is a sum of money to help you pay for adaptations to your home that will help you live with more independence.

To receive a grant, it doesn't matter whether you are a home owner, live with a home owner or live in a rented property. 

East Devon District Council tenant’s must contact 01395 517458 – Housing repairs, Repairs@eastdevon.gov.uk for grants and applications for adaptations in Council owned homes. 

If you are awarded a grant, you will have to agree to binding terms and conditions.

Do not start on any work until you have received written confirmation that your grant has been approved. You might not get any grant if you start work on your home before the Council approves your application.

What you will get

In England the most we can pay you is £30,000 but you might not be eligible to receive the full amount.

Grants are means tested to assess if you need to make a contribution towards the cost of works. 

Passported applications

Some applications will be Passported. 

This means that you will not have to pay for works up to the value of £30,000.

Whether your application is Passported, will depend on:

  • your age
  • if you receive a qualifying passporting benefit

Adaptations for people under the age of 18 years are automatically Passported.

Examples of passporting benefits are:

  • Universal Credit
  • Income-related Employment and Support Allowances (ESA)
  • Income Support
  • Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
  • Guarantee Pension Credit
  • Housing Benefit
  • Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit (where annual income for the purposes of assessing tax credit entitlement is less than £15,050)

You must provide recent evidence of being in receipt of a passporting benefit.

Extra help

If you need extra help with the grant process, we can help. Let us know as soon as you can about any additional needs you may have that you need support with. We have a range of ways that we can help you. You may want to get further explanations or advice about the grant by talking to someone you trust. This may be a friend, relative, advocate, GP or occupational therapist.

Data Protection Privacy Notice

Use of your personal information

We will collect the personal data needed to assess and validate your financial assistance application. We will share your information with other Council teams to verify information contained in the application. Your personal data is used by officers to provide this service to you including to determine the application, to design and create a schedule of works for the tender process and to ensure that the adaptation has been completed to the requirements of the ‘Statement of Needs’.  We share your contact details with contractors and the secure dynamic purchasing system to obtain competitive quotes.

We will provide this service to you as part of our regulatory duties under Part I of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 and the Regulatory Reform (Housing Assistance) (England and Wales) Order 2002. Information is retained for 10 years as required by the above law.

For further information and a copy of the privacy notice please contact 01395 571572 or email pshousing@eastdevon.gov.uk

or see the East Devon Data Protection website

Data protection for Processing Better Care Grant Funding applications