Charities that offer low interest loans for adaptations?

PitifulPenguin

Hi folks,

Hope you're well and looking forward to the weekend. Had a bit of a rubbish week this week, so I certainly am!

Just found out, after fives months of waiting and £2k of expenses in moving into a property that I am not able to access any support in getting adaptations done to the rent-to-buy flat that I'm currently in.

This means I need to self-fund the adaptations myself, which are estimated to cost between £20k - £30k+ for a wetroom and adapted kitchen. I'm a wheelchair user with CP.

I'm based in Middlesbrough, and whilst I earn a modest amount of money £35k a year, it's a significant financial burden to carry when I factor in my necessary outgoings and I'm wondering/hoping if there are any national or local charities or banks out there that offer low interest loans, so I don't financially ruin myself.

Appreciate that in hindsight, I shouldn't have moved into the property in the first place, but I'm doing this on my own with no support and when I asked to see if an OT could speak to me before I moved in, they said they couldn't until I moved into the property so I had to make a judgement call and unfortunately, it was the wrong one.

Thanks

Rosie_Scope

Hi @PitifulPenguin! Sorry you've had such a hard week, that sounds incredibly frustrating. Was it the local authority that turned you down for adaptation support?

I'm not too sure about low interest loans myself, but it could be a good idea to chat to your bank. If you've been a customer for a while sometimes they'll have good rates available. There's also some information about finding affordable loans on Money Saving Expert that might be helpful to you: Compare best loan rates – check eligibility and apply

You could see if you'd be eligible for any grants towards the costs:

Find out about applying for grants | Turn2us

Hopefully there's something there to explore ☺️

I'll also tag @Richard_Scope, our CP lead in case he knows of any further support you might be able to access. It might take a couple of days for him to get back to you, but I'm sure he'd be happy to help.

PitifulPenguin

Hi @Rosie_Scope,

Thanks for providing that information. I'll have a look to see what I can do. It's a bit tricky re: my bank (Virgin Money), as they have recently stopped offering loans to customers as they've just been bought by Nationwide, so that's out of the question for the moment.

Thanks again.

PitifulPenguin

And yes, it was my local authority who said I couldn't access support.