Quick answer
A Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) is council funding to help pay for adapting your home for a disability — including making a bathroom safe and accessible. In England you can get up to £30,000 towards approved works. Eligibility depends on the person’s needs and, for most adults, a means test of household income and savings. It’s not means-tested for a disabled child.
What the grant is actually for
A Disabled Facilities Grant is a mandatory grant from your local council that helps pay for changes to your home so a disabled person can live there more safely and independently. The bathroom is one of the most common reasons people apply — a tired old suite with a high-sided bath becomes a daily hazard, and a level-access wet room or walk-in shower removes that risk at a stroke.
Typical bathroom works a DFG can cover include replacing a bath with a level-access shower, fitting grab rails and a shower seat, installing a comfort-height or wash-dry toilet, widening a doorway, and improving the floor so it’s safe underfoot when wet. The grant is about need, not luxury — it funds the adaptation that lets someone wash and use the toilet safely, not a top-to-toe redesign.
Plymouth City Council administers DFGs for the city. The figures and rules here are general guidance to help you understand the scheme — they are not a promise of funding, and the council makes the final decision on every application. For your own circumstances, always check directly with Plymouth City Council and the official guidance on gov.uk.
Am I likely to be eligible?
There’s no harm in finding out — applying costs nothing, and the council’s occupational therapy team are there to help. Broadly, you may qualify if:
- You or someone living in your home is disabled (this can be physical disability, a long-term condition, or age-related mobility loss)
- The work is needed to give safe access to, or use of, essential facilities — the bathroom and toilet very much count
- The works are assessed as necessary and appropriate by an occupational therapist, and reasonable and practicable for your property
You can apply whether you own your home or rent it (with your landlord’s consent), so long as you intend to live there for the grant period.
Replacing a high-sided bath with a level-access shower or walk-in bath is one of the most common — and most life-changing — DFG-funded bathroom adaptations.
The means test — what it does and doesn’t cover
For most adults, the grant is means-tested. The council looks at the income and savings of the disabled person and their partner to work out whether you contribute towards the cost and, if so, how much. Plenty of households on modest incomes pay nothing at all. Two important points people are often relieved to hear: the test does not count the wider household (grown-up children’s wages, for example), and if the grant is for a disabled child or young person under 18, there is no means test — the family’s finances aren’t assessed.
If you receive certain qualifying benefits, you may be passported through the financial side automatically. The amounts and thresholds change, so we won’t quote them here — the council and gov.uk hold the current figures, and they’ll explain exactly where you stand.
How the application usually runs
1 · Get in touch with the council
Contact Plymouth City Council’s adult social care or housing adaptations team, or ask your GP, district nurse or social worker to refer you. This starts the ball rolling.
2 · Occupational therapy assessment
An OT visits, watches how you manage day to day, and recommends the adaptations that will genuinely help. Their report shapes what the grant will fund.
3 · Quotes & approval
The council asks for quotes for the recommended work. Once approved, the funded works can go ahead and a fitter like us carries them out.
It can take time — assessments and approvals don’t happen overnight — so it’s worth starting early. We’re happy to provide a clear, itemised quote for the works the OT recommends, which is exactly what the council needs to see.
Where we fit in
We’re not the people who decide your grant — that’s the council. What we do is the work itself, done properly and with care. We fit accessible bathrooms across Plymouth and the South West every week, and we’re used to working alongside occupational therapists and the council’s adaptations process. We’ll quote clearly for the recommended works, and if you’d like to add anything beyond what the grant covers (nicer tiling, a second grab rail, a heated towel rail), we’ll price that separately and honestly so you can decide.
For more on the practical options, see our guide to accessible bathrooms and our companion page on accessible bathroom grants and options. You might also find our pages on walk-in showers and the cost of a bathroom in Plymouth useful when planning.
Do I have to pay the grant back?
Can I choose my own fitter?
What if the grant doesn’t cover everything I’d like?
Here to help, not to rush you
Planning an accessible bathroom in Plymouth?
Whether you’re applying for a grant or paying privately, we’ll give you a clear, itemised quote and patient, jargon-free advice — at your pace.