Am I able to get my own house?

I moved from my parents house to a bungalow when I was 27. I had already been having PAs for 7 hours a day at that point so I had a good idea I’d manage with 24 hr care. I was very fortunate that a bungalow came up after 2 years of beng on a waiting list. I think that’d be the first step – to contact your local housing department and hopefully they will have a person that can visit and assess needs. It’s 12 years ago so it could well have changed and alight also vary from place to place but I was assessed and given a banding according to need.

Is there anything that particularly worries you about living independently? It was daunting at first and took a while to adjust but the right decision for me.

I don’t know of any schemes like Motability for housing. My bungalow is a housing association property.

Hi! Mded89,

I have some experience of these matters and I have also looked into it because my daughter has my condition and may want to one day have a place if her own.
As sar78 has mentioned there is usually a ‘Choice based housing list scheme’ in most areas these days.
But before you apply to this which is usually how all housing either Council or Housing Association is allocated, you need to prepare so that you have the best chance of securing a property which is right for you in a timely manner.

I advise you to look up the Housing register rules for your area on your local Council website and the Social care advice pages.

1, Get all of you medical evidence together eg- Consultant Diagnosis, the same sort of stuff which you will need for DLA/PIP claims, you will need this for your Housing Benefit claim and for banding ( points awarded on housing waiting list affect how quickly you are allocated a property) Also to give to your OT to explain your needs.
2, Ask for an OT assessment with regards to your current housing and what you would require in the future to meet your needs is whether a bungalow or flat instead of a house etc…
3, Contact the Council and ask for the forms for applying to the housing list and for housing benefit. If you require help to fill them in you could make an appointment to visit them and they should help you fill them in. ( obviously you don’t actually fill in the housing benefit one until you have been signed up for a property/ offered a tenancy ).
4, The housing team may offer to bid on your behalf to your criteria if you find it difficult to bid along side yourself.
5, Once you are offered a property then call out the OT in advance of accepting if able or once you’ve accepted so adaptations can be applied for if required.

Other things to take into consideration but which shouldn’t deter you from seeking your independence is whether or not your current property ( parents) is deemed suitable to meet your needs eg has adaptations or enough bedrooms.
Whether your parents tenancy (if they rent) would be affected if you move out by the ‘ bedroom tax’.
If you do have adaptations whether they have been funded by a DFG in the last five years?

Don’t worry about care if you already have carers and a good diagnosis then you should be able to request care from your local authority either provided directly or by using direct payment scheme.
Another thing to think about is if your parents are your carers whether you still want them to be or would you prefer others eg via an agency ( privacy!) or a mixture of this.
Does your parents claim benefits as your carer? as this may be affected depending on what you decide to do! Also if they depend on your car to get around what would you do about that?

None of theses issues are insurmountable though and all can be worked through to enable you to have a home of your own and live independently and lets face it one day you may have to as our parents don’t live for ever lol!

Good luck! and I hope that it all works out for you!

Shellybear

Expert advice.