Free Wheelchairs and Grants in the UK: Who Qualifies?

The NHS can provide your wheelchair if you meet your local wheelchair service’s criteria. You need a referral and an assessment first. Depending on your circumstances, you may still pay something towards it. Charity wheelchair grants and a personal wheelchair budget can cover what’s left.

Most people skip straight to buying. Our wheelchairs start at £195, and we’d rather you spent that money only if you have to. Here’s the order to work through first.

Who is Entitled to a Free Wheelchair?

There’s no single national rule, which is why two people with similar needs can get different answers. Wheelchair services are run locally, and each integrated care board, the NHS body that plans services in your area, sets its own criteria based on what its local population needs.

The way in is the same wherever you live. Ask a GP, physiotherapist, occupational therapist or hospital staff to refer you to your local wheelchair service for an assessment. You can’t get an NHS wheelchair without that, and the service decides with you whether you need a chair and which type.

You might not need the GP at all. In some areas you can refer to yourself. Ring the wheelchair service or your integrated care board and ask.

Short-term needs are different again. You can sometimes borrow an NHS chair for a few weeks, say after an operation, without going through the full process.

Personal Wheelchair Budgets

This is the bit people miss, and it’s worth asking about by name.

A personal wheelchair budget is the amount the NHS would have spent meeting your assessed needs through its own service. It replaced the old voucher scheme. Your integrated care board works out the figure, so it varies by area.

You then choose how to spend it:

• Keep it in the NHS

The wheelchair service buys and provides the chair, and handles repairs and maintenance. This is the notional budget.

• Spend it Outside the NHS

You pick a chair from an independent supplier, who invoices the NHS for the budget. This option should include something towards repairs and maintenance, so ask about it.

• Let Someone Else Manage it

 An organisation independent of both you and the NHS holds the money  and manages the budget for you.

What you can’t usually do is have the cash. Direct payments into your own account aren’t routinely available for a wheelchair budget on its own.

Two things to pin down at the assessment:

• The budget pays for equipment only, so it doesn’t replace the NHS duty to assess what you need. 
• And whichever route you take, the chair still has to meet the clinical needs in your assessment. 

You can’t spend it on a chair the service doesn’t think is right for you.

If you do go outside the NHS, NHS England points to the British Healthcare Trades Association’s accreditation scheme as a way of choosing a supplier.

Topping Up the Budget With Wheelchair Grants

The budget doesn’t have to be the only money involved.

It can be pooled with funding from health and social care services, from Access to Work, and from the local authority, so that one chair meets several needs at once rather than three bodies each funding part of your life separately.

Charities can contribute too. That’s where wheelchair grants usually come in: not as the whole price, but as the gap between what the NHS will fund and the chair you actually need.

Wheelchair Grants for Adults: Where to Look

A grant is money, or sometimes the item itself, given by a charity to someone who needs it. You don’t pay it back.

Start with the Turn2us Grants Search. Age UK hosts it as a grants search tool on its own site. You answer a few questions and it matches you to funds you can apply to.

Then read the small print on each one, because charitable funds are narrow by design. Turn2us says every fund sets its own qualifying rules, and that you’ll generally need to be on a low income or in financial need. Some are for people with one particular condition. Some are limited to an age group. Some only cover one town or parish. Charities apply these rules strictly, so check before you spend an evening on the form.

Don’t expect one grant to do it all. Wheelchair grants for adults tend to be part of the total, alongside the NHS budget and whatever you can put in yourself.

Wheelchair Grants for Children and Young People

Family Fund gives grants to families on a low income who are raising a disabled or seriously ill child or young person up to the age of 24. You apply as the parent or carer. For anything outside what it funds, Family Fund sends families to the same Turn2us search.

Can Motability Help?

If it’s a powered chair you’re after, the NHS points to the Motability Scheme, which can help you hire or buy an electric wheelchair. It lets some people use their benefits to pay for one.

When None of it Applies

Plenty of people fall outside all of this. You might want a second chair for the car, something lighter for holidays, or a model the service won’t fund.

For reference, the NHS puts the private market at £150 for a manual chair and around £2,000 for a basic electric one. Ours run from £195 for the Explorer Value, which folds to 23cm wide, through the Explorer Standard at £295 and the Explorer Travel at £495, up to £2,965 for the carbon fibre Whizzi Sport powerchair.

Three things bring that down:

• VAT Relief: If you’re chronically sick or disabled, there’s no VAT on qualifying equipment. GOV.UK explains who counts as disabled for VAT purposes. You fill in a short declaration at checkout, or our team does it with you over the phone.
• Paying Monthly: PayItMonthly spreads it over up to 12 instalments at 0% APR, from about £41 a month, subject to status. You need to be 18 or over and a UK resident, and it isn’t currently regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
• Hiring:  For a hospital discharge, a few weeks after surgery or a holiday, we hire manual and electric chairs across London and Greater London. Red Cross branches also hire wheelchairs by the week, and some shopping centres run Shopmobility schemes where you borrow one free or cheaply.

The Order To Do It In

1. Ask a GP, physiotherapist, occupational therapist or hospital staff for a referral, or check whether you can refer yourself.
2. Go to the assessment and talk about what you want to be able to do, not only what’s difficult now. The assessment is meant to look at that.
3. Ask whether there’s a personal wheelchair budget, how much it is, and which of the three routes your service offers.
4. Ask who pays for repairs under each one. It isn’t the same answer each time.
5. If there’s still a gap, run the Turn2us search, and try Family Fund if the user is under 24.
6. Buy privately last, with VAT relief applied.

That sequence costs you nothing but a few phone calls, and you’ll know what’s funded before any of your own money goes in.

Try The Chair Before You Commit To It

Grant, budget or your own money, the chair still has to suit the person using it. Sit in it first.

We do free demos at home, at the Potters Bar showroom by appointment, or online, with no obligation. The team can go through frame size and weight while you’re in the chair.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is entitled to a free wheelchair in the UK? +

Anyone who meets their local NHS wheelchair service’s criteria, after a referral and an assessment. Each integrated care board sets its own criteria, so they differ by area, and you may still pay something towards the cost depending on your circumstances.

What are wheelchair grants? +

Money, or sometimes equipment, given by charities to people who need it. You don’t pay it back. Each fund has its own rules, usually around low income, a particular condition, an age group or a local area.

How do I find wheelchair grants for adults? +

Use the Turn2us Grants Search, which Age UK hosts on its website. It matches your circumstances to funds you can apply to. Check each fund’s rules closely, because they’re applied strictly.

What is a personal wheelchair budget? +

The amount the NHS would have spent meeting your assessed needs. You can keep it within NHS services, spend it with an independent supplier who invoices the NHS, or have an independent organisation manage it.

Can I use a personal wheelchair budget to buy privately? +

Yes, through the third party route, where the supplier invoices the NHS. The chair still has to meet the clinical needs in your assessment, and the budget should include something towards repairs and maintenance.