£50 million boost to Disabled Facilities Grant pot
3 mins read
Monday 12 January 2026
The government has announced a £50 million cash injection for Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG) in England this financial year. They say it could support 5,000 more children and adults with disabilities who need home adaptations. An adaptation is a change made to your home to make it more accessible and safer for a disabled child or adult. The money will be paid to local authorities in February boosting this year’s allocation of money to the DFG pot.
Contact regularly hears from families who need adaptations to make caring for their disabled child at home easier. Whether that’s building an accessible bathroom or creating a quiet space, or installing ceiling track hoists.
Unsuitable accommodation
Una Summerson, Head of Campaigns at Contact, said: “We welcome this additional money for Disabled Facilities Grants. Many families with disabled children live in unsuitable accommodation and need housing adaptations. This makes caring much harder and sometimes dangerous. There are often long waits to get assessed for a Disabled Facilities Grant. While the average DFG is £10,000, some projects cost more. We’ve heard from families asked to pay towards the adaptations while others need to negotiate that the council and housing association split the cost.
“The extra money announced at the weekend will go some way to help families who need adaptations to to enable them to care for their disabled child more easily and safely. We would also like to see an increase in the upper limit of the DFG to reflect higher building costs and local authorities should promote the grants more widely. In addition, it’s important to address the shortage of Occupational Therapists who are needed to carry out the assessments.”
A decent home for every child
Contact’s research on housing as part of our A Decent Home for Every Child campaign found:
- More than a quarter (27%) of all families are not aware of the Disabled Facilities Grant, available from the council to help pay for building works, ramps, hoists.
- Only 12% have applied for a Disabled Facilities Grant. Of the families who did apply, 43% found the process poor or very poor. Over half (57%) said the grant did not cover the full cost of the adaptations needed.
- The average shortfall was £7,391. To find that money, a third (35%) had to borrow or take a loan. 30% used their savings, but more than a quarter (26%) had to do without or scale down the adaptations they really needed.
Need an adaptation to your home?
We have information on applying for a Disabled Facilities Grant in England and Wales, the Scheme of Assistance in Scotland and a Disabled Facilities Grant in Northern Ireland.
