Pembrokeshire Housing Financial Assistance Policy
Pembrokeshire Housing Financial Assistance and Adaptations Policy 2025-2030
Introduction
This document sets out the way in which Pembrokeshire County Council will deliver home adaptations to homeowners, private sector tenants and tenants in our own council housing stock.
Its main objective is to assist disabled residents to remain in their own home, to remain as independent and confident as possible within a safe and secure environment through the provision of adaptations so far as is necessary and appropriate and reasonable and practical in order to reduce the incidence of admissions to care facilities and to assist with delayed transfers from hospital where possible.
This Policy will also cover those other financial assistance available through grants or loans available towards targeting home improvements and bringing empty properties back into use for residential purposes.
Background
In July 2002, the Government made significant changes to housing grant legislation, introducing the Regulatory Reform (Housing Assistance) (England & Wales) Order 2002. This order allows local authorities to formulate their own flexible financial assistance policies to target their funding to address specific local needs and strategic priorities. On 10th March 2021, a written statement by the Welsh Government Minister for Housing and Local Government, Julie James, announced measures to remove the means test from small and medium Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs). The Wales Centre for Public Policy has undertaken a study on the potential impact of removing the means test on DFGs in Wales and has found the current means test on DFGs has acted as a deterrent to some disabled persons receiving adaptations in Wales. Pembrokeshire County Council made the decision to remove the means-test from small and medium adaptations and this has contributed to the increase in demand for adaptations locally.
Since the last review of this Policy in 2022, means testing was removed for small and medium adaptations, which led to an increase in demand for these adaptations and the funding offered from WG together with the council’s contribution towards adaptations from its capital programme has not been able to meet demand. Changes are therefore being proposed in this Policy to re-introduce an element of means testing and capping of the discretionary adaptations assistance being offered.
Furthermore, costs have seen an increase in the last 4 years. The average cost of the various forms of assistance the Council deliver, including Disabled Facilities Grants, has increased as a result, with many schemes costs now reaching or exceeding the maximum financial assistance available. As a result, the Council has looked to maximise the assistance available to ensure satisfactory completion of all works identified as necessary and appropriate to meet the needs of the disabled person by developing additional discretionary financial support where they have the powers to do so.
Legislative Framework
Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG’s) is an income assessed grant and remains the only national mandatory grant relating specifically to the provision of disabled adaptations. All other types of financial assistance available is provided at each Council’s discretion and limited to the availability of funding to support its policy aims.
This document contains information on eligibility for financial assistance, conditions relating to applications, approval and payment of funds and other relevant conditions and requirements.
Adaptations for Council Tenants will normally be provided according to the same framework as Disabled Facilities Grants.
The Policy will apply for the period: 1st April 2025 to 29th March 2030 (with the option to review every two years to ensure it is still reflective of locally assessed need or if there is any major legislative change and in cases of the provision of discretionary works, the availability of funding to support those individual schemes.
Discretion to extend or amend the eligibility criteria, the level of assistance available and the scope of the works where the situation is deemed exceptional rests with the delegated authority of the Head of Public Protection and Housing.
The statutory duties of the local authorities in connection with the provision of adaptations are laid down in the following legislation and policies:
- Housing Grant Construction and Regenerations Act 1996
- The Regulatory Reform (Housing Assistance) (England and Wales) Order (2002)
- A review of Independent Living Adaptations: Welsh Government (2015)
- Welsh Government Housing Adaptations Service Standards 2019
- Housing Adaptations: Wales Audit Office (2018)
- Housing and Disabled People: Equalities and Human Rights Commission (2018)
- Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014
- Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015
- Housing Adaptations: Report of the Public Accounts Committee (2018)
- Wales Housing Quality Standard 2023
Purpose of this policy
This policy is to provide information to the residents of Pembrokeshire on the financial assistance and advice that may be available from the Council to assist in maintaining their health and wellbeing. This policy has been developed to:
- Help people live as independently as possible within their own home for longer.
- Give people choice over their health and wellbeing.
- Help people have access to the wider community.
- Prevent or reduce the risk of falls.
- Reduce the need for care packages and residential care.
- Avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
- Improve housing standards
- Bring empty properties back into use.
Current and future demands
The ageing population is continuing to rise in England and Wales since 2011. The number of people aged 65 years and older has seen an increase from 9.2 million in 2011 to over eleven million in 2021 (Office for National Statistics).
Between the period 2019/20 and 2023/24, Pembrokeshire has seen in increase in the rate of housing adaptation applications received by some 67%. The rate of applications received had been steadily increasing on an annual basis, but following the introduction of the non means tested Discretionary Disabled Assistance for small and medium grants of less than £10,000 we saw a sharp increase in uptake. This is demonstrated below. Current projections for 2024/25 indicate the likely number of applications received to be in the region of 366, an additional twenty-two from the previous year. If we look at the average value of completed grants in in 2024/25 (£6,967.27), this could equate to an increase in expenditure of an additional £153,279.94. With the average cost of completed grants being historically less than £10,000 it was inevitable that most applications received would qualify for 100% assistance.
Disabled Facilities Grants, Disabled Small Works Grants, Discretionary Disabled Assistance Applications 1st April 2017 to 31st March 2024