I'm in an adapted house, and council said I can't swap with a non-disabled family. What can I do?

Tina06

Hi everyone
I'm new so thank you in advance for any help I get.
I am disabled single mum and at the moment we are living in a large 3 bed semi detached house. When I first moved here 14yrs ago I wasn't disabled but in 2012 I had an accident and as the years have gone on my disabilities have got worse. I am now in desperate need of moving house, I have found a lovely house to do a mutual exchange with but the council housing officer has said because I'm in an addapted house I can not swop with a non disabled family. However my house has not been adapted much I have only had grab rails in upstairs toilet and bathroom. I have 12 steep steps from my front door up to the road and I am housebound because of them plus I live up a very steep hill. No other disabled family will want to move here so I have looked at a house that has no steps has a downstairs toilet and bathroom plus the rooms are big enough for my wheelchair especially the kitchen to move around in . The occupational health need to do an assessment for the council to say if I can stay here with more adaptions or a move is more suitable but I'm so far down the list because the council won't let me register to move and get a bidding number and catagory so I can't move up the list. I am getting so depressed and given the run around I don't know what to do. Can anyone please help me 

janer1967

Hi there and welcome 

Sorry about what you are going through I understand your frustration as it would be easy to remove the rails from your house but it's like anything with social housing rules are rules 

The ot assessments do have quite a bit of influence to councils do fingers crossed this will improve your bidding ranking 

It did for me 

You could also speak to shelter for advice tho I think they are only advising homeless at present due to demand 

Let us know how you get on 

chiarieds

Hi @Tina06 - & welcome to the community. I do hope the OT assessment proves helpful & that you are able to move to more suitable accommodation. 

Tori_Scope

Welcome to the community @Tina06 I'm sorry to hear about your difficult housing situation. 

It does unfortunately seem as though it's a bit of a waiting game. I'm not sure there's much you can do in the meantime while you wait for the OT to do their assessment. Was it the council who made the adaptations to your current house? 

Further adaptations to the house you're in might be your best bet- would that be an alright solution? 

calcotti

Tori_Scope said: Further adaptations to the house you're in might be your best bet- would that be an alright solution? 

Even with adaptions, 12 steps up from front door to then arrive at a steep hill sounds very restricting.

Tori_Scope

I agree @calcotti, it's not a good situation at all. It could take a while to find a more suitable place that they're able to move into though. Obviously that would be ideal!

I meant to ask earlier as well @Tina06- are you receiving any support for your mental health? You mentioned feeling depressed because of the situation, which is completely understandable. I can imagine that, as a single mum, you have a lot on your plate, but it's really important that you seek help if you need it.