Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Disabled Facilities Grant scheme, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of updating the Test of Resources in order to ensure working people with disabilities can access means-tested support.

We recognise how important the right housing arrangements are in enabling people to live independently, and the need to support people to live in their own home wherever possible. In England, we continue to fund the locally administered Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) which helps eligible older and disabled people on low incomes to adapt their homes, through practical changes like installing stair lifts or level access showers, to make them safe and suitable for their needs.

We continue to keep all aspects of the DFG under review. Local authorities have a significant degree of flexibility in how they deliver home adaptations funding. For example, they can publish a housing assistance policy to increase the upper limit of the grant, or remove means testing for grants costing under a certain amount.