Six Financial Advice for Making Necessary Home Adjustments.
There is a big difference between home improvement and home adjustments. In the first, the changes are typically for aesthetic purposes. You want to change around your kitchen and modernise it because you enjoy how the modern aesthetic looks. When you need to make an adjustment, however, you aren’t doing it for superficial reasons.
Adjustments are made to accommodate additional needs for one or more of the people in your family. From physical to mental disabilities, homes need to adapt to care for their occupants best. Read previous posts on how to do this with style.
Unfortunately, this can be costly. 82% of families who have a disabled child or children to care for have less than £1000 in savings. 50% of all who were surveyed by Social Finance had no savings whatsoever. At the lowest income bracket, 93% of all surveyed families report having less than £1000 in savings.
With so little in savings, it can feel impossible to make the home adjustments your loved one needs, but with these top six financial tips, you can make it easier:
1. Apply for Grants and Funding Aid
The UK offers disabled facilities grants available to help pay for critical changes to the home; for example, if you need to widen the doors of your home, install ramps, improve access, eating, or even lighting controls. It is a significant grant to apply for as it doesn’t affect any other benefits you may be receiving and is instead designed to help you modify your home for your loved one.
How much you can apply for depends entirely on your household income and savings. In England, you can apply for a grant up to £30,000, in Wales, £36,000, and in Northern Ireland up to £25,000.
2. Use Short Term Loans
Not every modification will be covered under such a grant, and if you are in Scotland, the grand does not exist (though they do have support). In these instances, short term loans are a great option. When looking for short term loans, try to use a site like Cash Lady so that you can find all the short term loan options you can apply for, and then choose the best deal for your needs.
3. Savings
If you have the time, for example, if your child is still in their toddler years and won’t need home modifications for years, then start saving now. At the very least you should be able to pay a more significant portion of the deposit, so you can get a better interest rate on the rest of the cost.
4. Friends and Family
It doesn’t hurt to ask if friends or family can help you pay the cost. A parent may want to help their grandchild out and cover the entire cost of the renovation, and you can pay back cost, rather than cost and interest.
5. Charities
There are many charities out there designed to help those with disabilities. Have a look through their pages to see if there are any funding or grant options you can apply for so that you can reduce the burden of payment for these essential renovations.
6. Crowdfunding
Finally, you can try to crowdfund. If you have a knack for storytelling, there are many sites out there that will let you tell it. Try to choose a platform that allows you to keep all of the donations, even if you don’t reach your goal.