West Suffolk among fastest for grants to support independent living

29 Oct 2024

“You’ve given me back my independence, my dignity and my self-esteem,” said Brenda, as she shows the wet-room West Suffolk Council helped install in her home.

It has been a traumatic time for the 73-year-old who lives on her own near Bury St Edmunds. A fall left her with a shattered pelvis and hopes of an operation to help her recovery were dashed when she was subsequently diagnosed with osteoporosis. 

She struggled on at home, battling to lift her legs up into the bath and suffering a painful fall in the process. Unable to pay for a shower to replace her bath and struggling to keep herself clean, Brenda said the experience was “degrading and humiliating.” 

Help came after she was referred to West Suffolk Council, part of Independent Living Suffolk, which helps support people in their own home through Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG). Her application for a new wet room, was one of more than 200 DFG applications totalling over £1.6million received and completed in West Suffolk in the year to 31 March 2024. 

West Suffolk Council was in the top three per cent of authorities in the country for how quickly it awarded Disabled Facilities Grants in 2022/2023. That year the average wait from a full grant application to approval was four days and the average completion after that was 49 days. That was against a national average of 30 days for approval and another 95 days for completion.

Since then, West Suffolk has got even quicker. In the first half of this financial year, the average wait to approve a grant was just three days and the average wait from then until the work was completed was 35 days.

The work is a key component of the council’s Housing, Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeping Strategy which is due to be discussed by Council on 19 November.

“For residents it’s about improving their quality of life and supporting them so they can carry on living in their own home which is often better for their health and wellbeing. It is also about providing dignity and choice. The work means they are less likely to have to go into care or be admitted to hospital, which reduces the impact on health and social care costs and frees up critical bedspaces,” said Cllr Richard O’Driscoll, Cabinet Member for Housing at West Suffolk Council.

And Bob who is in his 70s and has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is an example of this.

Before he got a DFG grant for a stairlift at his home in Red Lodge, he used to crawl on his hands and knees up the stairs. Some of the time he got so breathless and weak that he fell down the stairs and had to go to hospital. 

“Going up the stairs would absolutely exhaust me,” he said. “Having the stairlift reduces some of the stress on my heart. It has taken a lot of the pain and worry about getting up and down the stairs, and it has made my wife’s life easier as well because before she didn’t know if she was going to come home and find me lying at the bottom of the stairs.”

The grants support people of all ages although around three quarters are residents who are of pensionable age. 

Marilyn, 88, from Mildenhall had been due to have an operation on her knees. “Then the pandemic hit and that was it. Now I am too old to have it done, my chest is too bad to have it done, therefore I am immobile.”

After six weeks in hospital for a fall, one of her carers helped her apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant to provide ramps to her home as well as a wet room.

“They were quite quick. They didn’t hang about. It’s marvellous, absolutely fabulous,” she said.

Cllr O’Driscoll said: “These stories show the difference that these grants can make, supporting people’s independence and their dignity so they can carry on living in their own home rather than having to go into care or hospital which can be devastating for them and their families. We will be looking to build on this important work as part of our new housing strategy which I will be asking council to approve next month.”

Find out more about Disabled Facilities Grants on our webpage  

And see more of Brenda, Bob and Marilyn’s stories on YouTube 

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