Government to consider increasing £30k limit for Disabled Facilities Grant

The Government has agreed to consider increasing the maximum amount of Disabled Facilities Grants (“DFGs”) following a claim for judicial review.

Local authorities are required to pay DFGs to allow homes to be adapted to make them suitable for disabled residents. However, since 2008 the maximum amount for a DFG has been set by regulations at £30,000, subject to top-up by local authorities using discretionary powers. Given the effects of inflation, that sum is now worth significantly less in real terms and is far short of what is needed to cover the cost of more expensive adaptations, specifically extensions to properties. In 2021, a government White Paper set out a commitment to increasing the DFG limit and to consulting on how this would be done in 2022, however, it subsequently failed to do so.

In July 2024 a disabled child, IY (acting by his mother, YI, as litigation friend), brought a claim for judicial review of the Government’s ongoing failure to increase the DFG limit, arguing that this undermined the purpose of the relevant legislation and/or discriminated against particular groups of disabled persons, previously recognised as being the most likely to require extensions of their properties.

Following service of the claim, the Government agreed to settle the matter, committing to carry out a review of the current DFG limit and its effect on disabled people who may require adaptations costing above this amount, with the review to be completed within 3 months. On 27 September 2024, Mr Justice Bright approved the parties’ consent order, settling the claim.

Following this, on 1 October 2024, the relevant local authority — which had been named as an interested party to the judicial review claim — agreed to provide discretionary funding to cover the cost of the extension required by YI above the current DFG limit. A

Jamie Burton KC and Daniel Clarke were instructed for the claimant, IY, by Oliver Carter, Aimee Brackfield and Sarika Sandhu of Irwin Mitchell solicitors.

A copy of Irwin Mitchell’s press release can be found here.