Thousands of Disabled people are being left without essential home support due to a detrimental "split-funded New Arrangement" for the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG). Under this policy, central Government only provides 50% of the funding for tenants in housing associations that took control of former council housing, forcing the housing associations to fund the remaining 50%. 

This split-funding model has created a devastating gridlock. Due to financial constraints and rigid policies, housing associations are actively blocking major, legally required adaptations—such as wet rooms and wheelchair access—in otherwise feasible homes, choosing instead to pressure vulnerable tenants to move. 

My own experience exposes the punishing reality of this system: 

* **Forced Separation & Financial Penalties:** The lack of adaptations forced me out of my home, resulting in my partner and I having to live apart for 5.5 years and counting. Because he remained in our original home, he was unfairly penalised with the "bedroom tax" for five and a half years. There is still insufficient room in my current property for us to live together.

* **Loss of Dignity & Basic Sanitation:** I have spent a cumulative six and a half years having to travel to public swimming pools and a day centre just to wash. Currently, this year, I am still forced to regularly return to the Irlam leisure centre just to use their disabled shower.

* **Systemic Failure and Inadequate Adaptations:** To get my recommended adaptations, I am trapped in a cycle of having to constantly lodge formal complaints; otherwise, they are simply left undone by my landlord. This is entirely unacceptable and demonstrates how the New Arrangement enables discriminatory practices against disabled tenants.

* **Frequent Displacement and Dangerous Compromises:** I have been forced to move 5 times with my current landlord (ForHousing) since 2015. At my current bungalow, only some of my adaptations were carried out. I was forced to get rid of my wardrobe just to fit my hospital bed into the bedroom and create enough space to navigate my wheelchair. Furthermore, management overruled a recommended shower pump—which I have a vital medical need for to improve water pressure for showering—resulting in me suffering eight dangerous falls.

* **Lack of Accountability:** ForHousing has repeatedly resisted Occupational Therapist (OT) recommendations and failed to inform me that Salford Council could have stepped in to fund the grant in full. I am currently forced to repeatedly complain to ForHousing, Salford OT service, and local councillors, while trying to secure a private Community Care solicitor.

The current system has turned essential independent living adjustments into a postcode lottery. We demand that the Government end this broken split-funded arrangement and reinstate the former process, where central Government provides 100% of DFG funding directly to qualifying tenants. 

Please sign to restore dignity, safety, and independence to disabled housing association tenants.