Stairlifts: costs, new or reconditioned, renting and grants

1. 1

   Ask for an assessment for equipment or adaptations

   Free to ask

   Ring the adult social care team at the council where your parent lives, or ask online. You can also ask the GP to refer them. Say that your parent is struggling with the stairs, and mention any fall or near miss.
2. 2

   An occupational therapist watches them on the stairs

   At home

   The occupational therapist, or a trained assessor, looks at how your parent climbs, how they get on and off a seat, the width of the staircase and the space on the landing. They may suggest a second rail or another option instead.
3. 3

   If a stairlift is the answer, apply for the grant

   Means-tested

   The assessment supports an application for a Disabled Facilities Grant. The council decides whether the work is necessary and appropriate for your parent and reasonable for the house, and must give a decision within 6 months.
4. 4

   Wait for approval before anything is fitted

   Before work starts

   If you go ahead before the council approves the application, your parent might get no grant at all. If you decide to buy privately instead, the assessment still tells you which features to ask for.

The NHS guide to home adaptations gives fitting a stairlift as one of its examples and says to ask social services for an assessment if someone is struggling with everyday tasks or worried about falling. The council should pay for each adaptation costing less than £1,000, which usually covers smaller jobs such as grab rails, but a stairlift costs more than that, so the grant is the usual council route for one. Free equipment for older people covers what the council lends and fits at no cost, and the wider guide to making a parent's home safer covers the rest of the house.

This page is about buying, renting and paying for a stairlift. Whether a stairlift is the right choice at all, compared with a second rail, a through-floor lift, a bed downstairs or a move, is the subject of stairs, stairlifts and moving downstairs, and it is worth reading that first if you are not yet sure. Both sit within PrimeCarers' guides to mobility and falls care.

Most stairlifts run on rechargeable batteries that are topped up from a charging point at the top or bottom of the stairs, so they keep working in a power cut. Living Made Easy says the power supply should always be left connected, which is worth telling anyone who might switch it off at the wall to save electricity. It also says a standard heavy-duty stairlift generally carries up to 25 stone (160kg), so tell the supplier your parent's weight at the first visit.

The two guides agree closely on straight stairlifts and further apart on curved ones, which is what you would expect when every curved rail is made for a different staircase. A winding staircase, a half landing, a long rail at the top, or a powered swivel seat and folding rail all push a quote up. Living Made Easy advises getting more than one quote, ideally from a manufacturer and from a local supplier.

Reconditioned stairliftsSection titled Reconditioned%20stairlifts

A reconditioned stairlift is a used lift that has been stripped down, checked and refurbished. Living Made Easy advises buying one only from a stairlift manufacturer or an authorised company that deals in reconditioned lifts, which will have checked that it meets current safety standards and will give a warranty. A second-hand lift bought privately, from a website or a neighbour, has none of that, and it still needs an engineer to fit it. Reconditioning makes most sense on straight stairs, because the rail can be cut and reused. For curved stairs, ask exactly which parts are new.

Renting a stairliftSection titled Renting%20a%20stairlift

Renting means paying a fitting charge and then a monthly sum, and the company takes the lift away when it is no longer needed. Living Made Easy suggests hiring may suit someone recovering from an operation or an accident who does not want a permanent installation. It can also bridge the months while a grant application is with the council, though anything fitted before approval can count against the grant, so ask the council first. Over a longer period, rent adds up: at the guides' monthly figures, two years of rent can come close to the price of a reconditioned straight lift. Ask what the rent includes, such as servicing, repairs and the call-out charge, and how much notice you have to give to end it.

Buy-back and removalSection titled Buy-back%20and%20removal

Which? found that buy-back terms differ between companies. Some will buy back a lift only if it was new when bought, is less than two years old and has been serviced regularly, sometimes for a small payment, and some will not buy back at all. Living Made Easy suggests asking about a buy-back policy at the quote stage and getting the answer in writing. If nobody buys it back, less.co.uk puts removal at £100 to £300.

When you compare quotes, ask each company what a service contract costs, how quickly an engineer comes out if the lift breaks down, whether there is a call-out charge, and whether they hold spare parts for the model they are selling. Living Made Easy suggests confirming that the supplier is an approved distributor for the lift and can supply parts. A cheaper lift from a company that cannot repair it quickly may be the more expensive choice over a few years.

VAT on servicing depends on which relief applies. For someone who qualifies through a disability or long-term illness, repairs and maintenance of the stairlift are zero-rated too. The 5% rate for people aged 60 or over covers the supply and fitting only, so later repairs are charged at the standard rate.

Age on its own does not qualify for the zero rate. Gov.uk says that someone who is elderly but not disabled, or only temporarily disabled, does not qualify for it. That is where the 5% rate helps: anyone aged 60 or over can use it on a stairlift that is supplied and fitted together, even if a son, daughter or someone else pays the bill. Someone who qualifies for the zero rate uses that instead. The rules are set out on gov.uk under VAT relief for disabled people and VAT on mobility aids for people over 60, and VAT relief on mobility aids goes through the declarations and what to do if a supplier will not apply the relief. Check that every quote says which VAT rate it includes, so you are comparing like with like.

The grant is means-tested, so the council may pay part of the cost and ask your parent to pay the rest, and some councils give more than the maximum. Gov.uk's guide to Disabled Facilities Grants says the council must decide within 6 months and that the work should be finished within 12 months of approval, and that you can appeal if you disagree with the decision. A government-funded organisation, Foundations, can help with applying. The Disabled Facilities Grant guide covers the means test and each stage of the process.

The cancellation rules are set out on gov.uk under door to door sales. One point is worth asking about directly. The Consumer Contracts Regulations do not cover goods made to the customer's own specifications, and a curved rail is made for one staircase, so ask the supplier in writing how the 14 days apply to your contract and what you would owe if you cancelled after the rail had been ordered. Which? explains section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, which covers purchases with a cash price over £100 and up to £30,000, even if only the deposit went on the card.

We do not recommend particular makers or installers. For views on brands, look to independent sources rather than a company's own reviews: Which? reviews stairlift brands, and Living Made Easy gives impartial guidance on stair equipment. The British Healthcare Trades Association code of practice sets the standards its member companies sign up to, so ask a supplier whether they are a member.

If your parent can still climb safely with a hand on each side, a second banister and better lighting may be all they need for now, and climbing stairs is good exercise for people who can manage it, as is climbing stairs good for older people explains. If they have stopped going upstairs since a fall, read fear of falling before you buy anything. Stairs, stairlifts and moving downstairs puts all five options side by side, including a through-floor lift, a bed downstairs and moving home, and explains what to plan for each.

PrimeCarers is an introductory service. We do not provide care: you find and choose a self-employed carer and agree the visits with them. Before a carer's profile appears, we check their identity and right to work, confirm they hold 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 each carer about their experience of helping someone on the stairs and with equipment, and show them how your parent uses the stairlift and what the occupational therapist advised. References and reviews on a profile are not verified by us. 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, so ask about that too.

An hourly visit on PrimeCarers costs £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, against £28 to £35 through an agency. An hour every morning and an hour every evening, at the typical £19.47, comes to £272.58 a week. When you are ready, you can search for carers near you and compare their rates. Hourly care after a hospital stay covers the first weeks home, reablement explains the free support that may come first, and night care for falls and toilet trips covers the nights.