How to strengthen your housing register application with medical evidence

Do you have a health condition that your home makes worse? You may be able to move up to a higher priority band on the housing register. The trick is to give the right medical evidence in the right way. Here is how medical priority works. Here is how to build a strong case.

What is medical priority on the housing register?

Most councils use a banding or points system. Medical priority is one way to move into a higher band. It can also give you more points. The council's housing team looks at your home. They check if it is unsuitable. They check if it is harming your health. If it is, they put you in a higher group than you would be in otherwise.

This does not happen on its own. You need to apply for a medical assessment. You need to give evidence to back it up. How strong that evidence is decides if you get medical priority. It also decides how much you get.

When does housing affect medical priority?

You are usually given medical priority when your home is:

• Making a condition you already have a lot worse
• Stopping you from managing your condition properly
• Putting you at risk of harm (for example, a person with mobility problems living in a home with lots of stairs, or a person with severe lung disease living in a damp and mouldy home)
• Not set up for your needs, in a way that really limits daily life

The link between your condition and your home is what matters. A health condition on its own is not enough. There must be a link to the housing. Without that link, you do not get medical priority on its own.

What evidence you need

A letter from your doctor or a hospital consultant

The main piece of evidence is a letter. It should come from someone who knows your condition well. That could be your doctor, a hospital consultant, a consultant nurse, or an occupational therapist. The letter should:

• State your diagnosis clearly
• Say how your condition affects you day to day
• Explain the exact link between your home and your health. For example, "the ongoing damp and cold in the current property is making [patient's] COPD worse and causing more chest infections"
• Set out what kind of home would fix the problem (ground floor, no stairs, away from damp, an adapted bathroom, and so on)
• Confirm that, in their professional view, the link is clinically significant

A plain letter that only gives the diagnosis is much weaker. A letter that spells out the link to the housing works far better.

Consultant reports and assessments

Some reports may carry more weight than a letter from your doctor alone. It depends on your condition:

• Occupational therapist report: An OT looks at how your disability or health condition affects how you cope at home. An OT report that asks for a ground-floor home, a home with a wet room, or a home without stairs is strong evidence for medical priority.

• Respiratory consultant: This is for conditions like COPD or asthma made worse by damp. A letter from a lung doctor or a lung consultant nurse helps a lot. It should explain the clinical link to the home.

• Physiotherapist or neurologist: This is for mobility conditions, brain and nerve conditions, or where there is a risk of falls.

Your own written account

What you write matters too. Tell them how your health and daily life are affected by your home. Write a clear, factual statement that describes:

• Your health conditions and how they affect you in real life
• The exact ways your home makes things worse (for example, "the stairs mean I cannot use the bathroom on my own", or "the mould in the bedroom makes me wake up coughing every night")
• Anything the housing has caused (falls, hospital stays, courses of antibiotics for chest infections in the property)
• What you have tried to do (repairs you reported, changes you asked for)

Evidence of the housing conditions

Photos help. Take photos of damp, mould, broken heating, unsafe stairs, or other problems. They back up your account. Environmental health reports or old repair letters also help. They show the problems are on record or have been checked by someone else.

How to submit a medical assessment request

Contact the council's housing team. Ask to make a medical assessment application. Ask for their form. Most councils have one. Find out who does the assessment. Some councils have their own medical advisers. Others use an outside service.

Send the form with all your evidence in one package. Do not wait for the council to gather evidence. Give them everything yourself.

If medical priority is refused or awarded at a low level

You have the right to ask for a review of a medical priority decision. Do you have new evidence, extra letters, or an OT report you did not send the first time? Put it in the review request.

What if the review decision still goes against you and you think it is wrong? You can:

• Make a formal complaint through the council's complaints process
• Get advice from a housing adviser (Citizens Advice, Shelter, or a local law centre)

When should I contact Support for Tenants?

Is disrepair, damp, mould, cold, or a problem with the building affecting your health? It may make your medical priority case stronger. You may also have a disrepair claim against your landlord. These are separate routes, but they work well together. Call us on 0800 030 4669.

No upfront cost. You only pay if you win, and the fee comes out of the compensation, not your pocket. If you don't win, you pay nothing.

Sources

• Housing Act 1996, Part 6 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Equality Act 2010 (legislation.gov.uk)

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