Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will issue guidance to local authorities to use their discretionary powers to exempt Disabled Facilities Grant applicants from means testing for housing adaptations costing less than £5,000.

New Government guidance on the effective delivery of the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) for local authorities in England was published on 28 March 2022 on Gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disabled-facilities-grant-dfg-delivery-guidance-for-local-authorities-in-england.

The guidance includes information on discretionary powers available to local authorities under a published Housing Assistance Policy, which can include fast-tracking the DFG process for eligible people living with motor neurone disease and other terminal conditions, as well as means test exemptions for adaptations costing less than £5000 if agreed locally. Any decision to include these priorities in a Housing Assistance Policy is a local one determined by local authorities.