Home modifications we can fund

The type of modifications DSS can help fund for your home will depend on your disability-related needs and your situation. Sometimes modifying your home may not be the best or only option for you. For example, you may find another home that better suits your needs.

What we can fund

Disability Support Services might be able to help fund modifications to your home, such as:

• handrails to help you use a set of steps leading into your home
• a ramp or lift to help you get into and out of your home and to get between levels inside your home
• a shower with level access to help you use your bathroom safely and independently, or with help from a carer
• changes to doorways to make it easier for you to move around the rooms that you have to use in your home
• fencing that will help stop you being injured because of your disability. However, we cannot fund the usual fencing and security needs of young children.

What we can't fund

Disability Support Services cannot fund home modifications that:

• cost less than $200
• have already been completed before we have approved funding (unless there are important reasons why the modifications had to be made before our funding was approved)
• are fittings that you would find in a standard home
• are for general maintenance
• are short-term modifications that might not support you to live in your home for at least 2 to 3 years
• are repeating modifications that we funded previously (with exceptions).

Types of funding for home modifications

Disability Support Services has a limited amount of funding available to support disabled people in making modifications to their homes.

Depending on your situation and what you need, DSS may be able to pay the full cost or make a cost contribution towards your modifications. Sometimes, you may be asked to pay an amount towards the cost.

Full funding

If we have agreed to pay the full cost of your modifications, we will manage the building process for you – including dealing with the building contractors and building consents and paying the bills for the modifications work.

Cost contribution

We will generally pay you a contribution towards the cost of some modifications to your home related to your disability needs if the modifications cost more than $1,000 (excluding GST) and at least one of the following situations applies:

• You are building a new home to meet your disability-related needs.
• You are doing more or different modifications to your home than the DSS housing assessor recommends.
• The builder who is doing your modifications does not have a contract with the DSS housing modifications funding manager Accessable or Enable New Zealand.
• The cost of access modifications into or between levels of your home (for example, a ramp or platform lift) is more than the DSS funding limit (more than $15,334 including GST).

In this situation, you must manage the building process and pay for the modifications yourself first. We will pay our contribution to the cost after the modifications have been completed and you have paid for them.

Find out more about cost contributions for home modifications.

Part payment 

If the cost of modifications to your home is more than $8,076 (including GST), you may need to complete an income and cash asset test to work out if you need to pay anything towards those costs.

If you do need to pay some of the cost of those modifications, this is called a ‘part payment’. The $8,076 includes the cost of any previous modifications funded by Disability Support Services or the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha after you turned 16 years of age.

Usually, the Disability Support Services housing modifications funding managers, Accessable or Enable New Zealand, manage the building process.

In this situation, we will pay our share of the cost directly to the builder or building consultant when the work is completed, and you must do the same with your share of the payment.

Find out more about part payment towards home modifications.

Related resources

Find out more about home modifications where you live.

If you live in Auckland or Northland, contact Accessable by

• Freephone 0508 001 002
• Email info@accessable.co.nz

If you live anywhere else in New Zealand, contact Enable New Zealand

• Freephone 0800 17 1981
• Email enable@enable.co.nz