Equipment an older person can get free

The needs assessment is the council's look at what your parent can and cannot manage at home. The NHS says that the needs assessment is free and anyone can ask for one, and that it is the step before the council can recommend equipment such as a walking frame or a personal alarm, or changes to the home such as a walk-in shower. It does not depend on your parent's income or savings. Our guide to the care needs assessment explains the whole process and what to say on the day.

When equipment or adaptations are the main worry, the council may send an occupational therapist, a professional trained to look at how somebody manages everyday tasks and what would make them safer. They may ask to see your parent get out of a chair, use the toilet, get into the bath or climb the stairs. Then they recommend what would help, and the council arranges it.

1. 1

   Ring adult social services

   Today

   Find your parent's council on GOV.UK and ask for a needs assessment, saying you are worried about falls, washing or the stairs. You can usually ring or apply online. Your parent should agree to it, and you can make the call for them.
2. 2

   Write down what is hard

   Before the visit

   Note the tasks your parent struggles with and when: getting out of the bath, standing up from the toilet, the stairs at night. Some people play things down on the day, so a written list helps the assessor see a normal week.
3. 3

   Be there for the visit

   The assessment

   It can be in person, by phone or online. Sit in if your parent is happy for you to, and ask the assessor to watch the hard tasks rather than hear about them.
4. 4

   Get the recommendations in writing

   Afterwards

   Ask what will be provided, who will fit it and roughly when. If the answer is that something needs a grant, ask the occupational therapist to start the referral.

If your parent is in hospital, the route is quicker. The ward occupational therapist or the discharge team decide what needs to be at home for the first night, and the NHS says that equipment the hospital gives your parent to use at home, such as a toilet surround frame, should also be free. Ask about it before the discharge date. Leaving hospital: what to arrange covers the rest of that list.

The rule behind the first group is in law. The Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 stop a council in England from charging for community equipment, meaning an aid, or a minor adaptation to the home, that helps with daily living. An adaptation counts as minor if it costs £1,000 or less. So a grab rail, a stair rail or a small ramp that the council fits because your parent was assessed as needing it is free, whatever their income or savings.

Two things are worth knowing about that rule. It applies to what the council provides after an assessment, not to things you buy yourself first and hope to claim back, so ask before you buy. And it is the assessment that decides what is needed. An occupational therapist may suggest a bath board and a grab rail where you had a walk-in bath in mind. If you think the recommendation falls short, say so and ask for the reasons in writing.

The NHS route is separate. Walking sticks and frames are lent through a GP, physiotherapist or hospital staff (a stick can need a small deposit), and a wheelchair for long-term use comes from the local NHS wheelchair service after a referral. Wheelchair services lend chairs rather than sell them; Dorset's service, for example, says its chairs can be loaned entirely through the NHS with nothing to pay. If your parent needs a different chair from the one prescribed, a personal wheelchair budget can go towards it. Walking aids and how to choose explains what each kind of stick and frame is for. NHS hearing aids are free on long-term loan, and batteries and repairs are free too.

For the rooms where these items matter most, reducing fall risks in a parent's home walks through the house one room at a time, and the right equipment to aid the elderly explains what each item does.

Some councils run their own alarm and monitoring service, sometimes called a community alarm, lifeline or telecare. The NHS says these are usually basic systems, and that if your council runs one it will arrange a home assessment. Whether your parent pays, and how much, is set by each council, so ask adult social services directly whether there is a charge. A personal alarm is also one of the things a needs assessment can recommend.

If the council does not run a service, or your parent wants something it does not offer, the choice is between four kinds of alarm. They differ mainly in who hears the call.

A fall detector, which raises the alarm on its own if your parent falls and cannot press the button, can be built into a pendant or sold separately, and a GPS alarm helps if your parent goes out alone. Choosing a personal alarm goes through who answers the call, contracts and fall detection in detail. Pendant alarms and sensors covers the sensors that can sit alongside one. For independent views on particular alarms, the consumer group Which? publishes a guide to personal alarms at home, and GOV.UK has a page on finding a telecare provider.

If your parent has a disability or a long-term illness, an alarm bought privately can qualify for the 0% rate of VAT. GOV.UK lists alarms among the products that can.

Nobody is entitled to a free stairlift because of their age. What a family can apply for is a Disabled Facilities Grant, which the council pays towards changes a disabled person needs to live safely at home. GOV.UK gives a stairlift, a level-access shower, ramps, grab rails and wider doors as examples. In England the grant is up to £30,000, and how much your parent gets usually depends on household income and on savings over £6,000. Some people receive the whole cost and others pay part of it.

The same applies to a walk-in bath. A grant pays for what meets your parent's needs, so the occupational therapist may recommend a level-access shower instead. Walk-in baths for the elderly and stairlifts set out the costs and choices if you are paying yourself, and stairs, stairlifts and moving downstairs helps decide whether a stairlift is the right answer at all.

The GOV.UK guidance on applying says the council may send an occupational therapist or trained assessor first, and that a government-funded organisation called Foundations can help with the application. Our council tax, VAT relief and grants guide and VAT relief on mobility aids explain how to claim each VAT rate.

Before buying anything costly, it helps to see the equipment and compare options without a salesperson in the room. Living Made Easy, run by the Disabled Living Foundation, lists daily-living equipment and where to buy it. Which? publishes independent stairlift guides, and the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC) tests products with disabled and older people. The British Healthcare Trades Association has a code of practice its member suppliers sign up to. We do not repeat their ratings here, and we do not recommend any maker or supplier.

If money is the obstacle, charities can sometimes help with an item the council will not fund. The NHS points to Independence at Home, which gives grants to people with a disability or long-term illness, and Turn2us has a search for charitable grants. Age UK and Independent Age give free advice on what help exists locally. Each charity sets its own rules, so check their pages for who they help.

Some things are usually paid for. A mobility scooter is not generally available on the NHS, though the Motability Scheme can help some people hire or buy one. The free rule covers what the council provides after an assessment, so ask before buying, and a private monitored alarm carries a monthly charge.

Equipment and care can come through the same door. The needs assessment that recommends a perching stool can also find that your parent needs help with washing, dressing or meals, and if the council's financial assessment says it will pay towards that help, your parent can ask for it as a direct payment and use it to pay a self-employed carer they choose. Local authority funding explains the means test, and Attendance Allowance is worth claiming alongside it, whatever the result.

You can search for carers near your parent and compare their rates. Carers on PrimeCarers charge £18 to £25 an hour for visits, with our fee included, against £28 to £35 at an agency. PrimeCarers is an introductory service: the carers are self-employed, you choose who to talk to, and you agree the visits with them. Before a carer appears on the site we check their ID and right to work, see an enhanced DBS check (or PVG in Scotland, Access NI in Northern Ireland) issued within the last 2 years, and interview them online. We do not check qualifications, training or references, so ask the carer about their experience with moving and handling or with the equipment your parent uses. Visits booked through PrimeCarers are covered by the carer insurance policy we arrange, within its terms, and moving and handling is covered only where the carer has been trained for it. Hourly care explains how visits are set up, and personal care covers help with washing and dressing.