Star date: 25th July 2018

AFTER 43% OF PEOPLE 'OPT OUT' OF ADAPTATIONS PROCESS COUNCIL DROPS MEANS TESTING

Salford Council is to drop means testing of vulnerable residents for disability adaptations like stair lifts and hoists, as it reveals that an estimated 43% of people 'opt out' of the schemes due to costs and complicated processes.

The health service is trying to keep people out of hospital and to remain independent in their homes but without these type of adaptations people are more likely to fall, resulting in more hospital stays, and greater costs and pressures for the health service.

Full details here...

In a major bout of common sense, and an increased Government grant, Salford City Council is stop means testing vulnerable people who need adaptations in their houses.

Yesterday, the Council Cabinet rubber stamped a report which highlighted that an estimated 43% of people 'opt out' of the process to provide hoists and stair lifts due to things like 'Inability to afford the contribution set by the means test'... 'A reluctance to share financial information to undertake the means test process' and 'A feeling that there is too much hassle/paperwork to progress with the process, particularly when people are unwell'...

The report adds that almost one third of people over 65, and over fifty per cent of those aged over 80 have falls each year, 60% of which are in their own home. 5% of these people experience fractures as a result, which need treatment in hospitals, leading to extra pressures on the already stretched health service. It's estimated that adaptations can reduce falls by 26%.

The intrusive and convoluted process to receive Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) has led to a situation where, on one side, the Government has increased funding for Salford, from £1.3million pre-2016, to £2.6million in 2017/18, to £2.8million this year, but take up of the grant by vulnerable people has dropped off, leaving an underspend of £1.36million in 2016/17 and £754,000 in 2017/18.

Meanwhile, the Council's Community Equipment Service has overspent by more than £500,000 during the last two years... "Consequently" states the Council report "solutions need to be reached to better manage the entirety of the two budgets and to also ensure we increase uptake in DFGs to support more vulnerable disabled people in Salford".

The 'solutions' include ending means testing for hoisting systems and stair lifts, which should end a ridiculously complicated and delayed system where vulnerable people were having to take out loans to install hoisting equipment, or having to buy stair lifts and the having to flog them on the second hand market when they were no longer needed. The Council will now own the stair lifts and recycle them for others to use.

As well as dropping the means test, the Council is also stopping a funding condition in which people were expected to pay back the grant within ten years of the adaptations being completed if they sold or transferred their property. In 2016/17 just over £3,000 was paid back, with zero so far this year.

Also agreed was to provide other disability equipment that costs over £1,000, like walk in showers, by 'direct financial assistance', and to 'Approve the capitalised fees of 14% for the commissioning of non mandatory grant works' (which isn't fully explained).

The changes, states the report "will see more people supported and greater equity of access for vulnerable disabled people to continue to live independently", which, if true, can only be a good thing...