Vol. 489 No. 6
504 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government when he last reviewed the £8,000 maximum grant payable to persons adapting a house to accommodate a person with a disability; the current value of this grant if it were indexed with the cost of building index over the intervening period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8832/98]
Under the regulations governing the disabled person's grant scheme, my Department recoups to housing authorities 50 per cent of the cost of each disabled persons grant paid by them, subject to a maximum which was last increased to £4,000 in respect of works commenced on or after 1 March 1993. While there is no maximum grant limit set out in the regulations, in practice housing authorities generally limit the grant they pay to twice the maximum recoupment available from my Department. Therefore, the effective ceiling generally for the disabled persons grant was last increased to £8,000 with effect from 1 March 1993. The increase in the house building cost index from that date to March 1998 was 17.8 per cent and a corresponding increase would bring the effective grant ceiling to £9,424.
I am, in the context of the Government's Action Programme for the Millennium, examining possible options to extend the range of measures currently available to assist low income households in securing necessary improvement works to their housing, including the disabled person's grants scheme. Pending completion of this examination and decisions arising from it, I do not propose to comment on the possible outcome.
