- The little person has a very hard time getting it right against the big municipality, says Tommy Ericsson who in addition to being disabled is also affected by cancer.
Requirements for storage
It is the regions that grant the right to an electric wheelchair.
But to get an electric wheelchair, there are requirements for how it should be stored.
Among other things, an individual locked space is required indoors with a temperature of at least ten degrees.
However, the region has nothing at all to do with this, but it ends up with the municipality in question and the law on housing adaptation.
When Tommy Ericsson left Dalarna - where he had a correct storage he could not take with him - and ended up in Gävleborg and Hofors municipality this spring, he applied for a housing adaptation grant for storage at his new home.
But he got no.
- If I had the energy, I would have built the garage myself, but it is not possible in the condition I am in now, says Tommy Ericsson.
Catch 22
The Housing Adaptation Allowance Act regulates the right to have one's home adapted as a disabled person.
After the law was written about 2018, a wheelchair garage is considered a loose piece of furniture and the adaptation allowance is only for solving the fixed functions inside and outside the home.
- The Administrative and Court of Appeal assesses that an electric wheelchair garage is not a fixed function and then the right to receive this grant falls, says Marianne Söderman, administrator at Västra Gästrikland's community building administration who handles this type of case in Hofors, Sandviken and Ockelbo municipality.
She continues:
- Unfortunately, the applicant has ended up in a small part 22.
"I'm going to fight"
For the time being, Tommy Ericsson has been able to borrow an electric wheelchair garage free of charge from a company that provides the type of products for which he has applied for a grant.
- I intend to fight as long as I can, says Tommy Ericsson.