The Long Wait for a Home
This is new report from Leonard Cheshire Disability is the 4th in their Home Truths series and focuses on the significant delays disabled people face when waiting for adaptations to their homes. Key findings include:
- Two-thirds of councils (62%) failed to complete adaptations on disabled people's home within the one year legal limit, at least once last year.
- Every year, almost 2,500 disabled people wait over a year to get vital funding to make their homes accessible.
- Almost half (44%) of councils are making people wait more than two years to make necessary adaptations that would protect disabled people from illness and injuries from their unsuitable home.
- While demand for adaptations has risen six per cent since 2011/12, the funding for Disabled Facilities Grants has gone down by three per cent in the same period.
- Almost all (96%) of the occupational therapists we surveyed agreed that adaptations reduce the need for social care.