Do you want to stay in your familiar surroundings in old age as well? Stairs can be considerable obstacles when mobility decreases. A stair lift helps you to overcome such barriers. Not everyone can immediately and fully bear the cost of the purchase.
To ensure you don't have to sacrifice quality of life, there are several financing options available . Examples include subsidies from the health insurance fund in the case of a care degree, subsidies for age-appropriate conversion from the kfw or a classic bank loan. Also stairlift manufacturers often offer you financing solutions such as full or partial financing with a payment in installments.
Financing a stairlift – these are the possibilities
If you are thinking of purchasing a stair lift from TK home solutions to make everyday life easier for yourself or a relative in need of care, you can take advantage of a variety of financing options. The purchase of stairlifts for private use is associated with costs that cannot always be borne immediately.
Special conversion measures to the house are not mandatory. Stairlifts, which are available as individual solutions for different types of stairs, can be financed in several ways.
Subsidy from the nursing care insurance fund of the health insurance fund
Before purchasing and installing a stair lift, you should check whether you are entitled to a subsidy from the health insurance company's care insurance fund. Such a claim exists already with a care need starting from the care degree 1.
The subsidy at TH homesolutions is granted for a person in need of care up to 4.000 euros granted. If several persons in need of care live in one household, this subsidy is multiplied. A couple in need of care, for example, can receive a grant for a stair lift of up to 8.Get 000 euros.
If no care degree was determined yet, you can place an application over your health insurance company. Depending on the restrictions, the care degrees 1 to 5 can be determined. To do this, proceed as follows:
- Call the health insurance fund or make an informal written application.
- You will receive a form from the health insurance company, which you fill out with the required information and send back to the health insurance company.
- Afterwards you receive an appointment, at which an expert of the medical service of the health insurance company (MDK) comes with legally health-insured or of MEDICPROOF with privately health-insured to you, in order to determine a care degree.
- You will be notified about the determination of the care degree.
If a care degree has been determined, you can submit the application for a stairlift informally in writing to the health insurance company prior to purchase and installation. Point out that you are applying for a grant for a home environment improvement program.
Tip: if your application for a care degree was rejected by the health insurance company, you should file an objection. In your appeal, justify why you think there is a need for care.
Financing options via kfw
Through the kfw (kreditanstalt fur wiederaufbau), financing for a stair lift can be obtained with a grant under the funding program "altersgerecht umbauen – investitionszuschuss (455)" and with a low-interest loan.
The grant under the 455 grant program is 10 percent of the eligible purchase cost of a stair lift, up to a maximum of 5.000 euros.
The application must be made before the stairlift is purchased. Owners, tenants with the consent of the landlord and condominium associations of private individuals are eligible to apply for funding.
Under certain conditions, the kfw subsidy can be combined with the subsidy from the long-term care insurance fund or a public subsidy. Before starting the conversion measures, you apply for the subsidy directly to kfw.
You can also finance a stair lift with a low-interest loan from the kfw under the "159 – age-appropriate conversion" development program. Here, too, there is an entitlement for owners, tenants with the landlord's consent, and landlords. Financing is possible with a kfw loan at 100 percent. The effective interest rate starts at 0.75 percent annually.
Further possibilities for financing stairlifts
If you do not want to take out a classic bank loan to finance a stairlift, there are other options for financing, depending on your personal situation:
- Subsidy via the employment agency as part of the initiative "integration assistance for people with disabilities", if there is no claim against the pension insurance, you are of working age and need the stairlift to maintain or take up employment
- Cost absorption by the employers' liability insurance association, if the lift is needed as a result of an occupational disease or an accident at work
- Regional support in individual federal states, the type and amount of which differs depending on the federal state
- Tax deductibility as extraordinary burden in the tax return.
If all of these grants, tax savings or subsidies do not apply to you and you are receiving benefits from social services , a financial subsidy may be available through social services.
Financing models for stairlifts
In addition to subsidies from the nursing care insurance fund, kfw or the federal state, the financing of a stair lift can be carried out with a classic bank loan. The interest rates for such loans are currently still favorable due to the zero interest rate policy of the european central bank.
A loan comparison on the internet helps to find the bank with the most favorable conditions. Before you take out a bank loan, you should contact the stairlift provider. For your stairlift you will receive a suitable financing offer as a loan , which you pay back in monthly equal installments. With such a loan, financing is possible without a down payment as full financing, but also with a down payment or in combination with a grant as partial financing.
Subsidies that you receive from the nursing care insurance fund or the kfw can be combined with financing as an installment loan. Loans for full and partial financing can be granted with different terms. The amount of the installments depends on the loan amount and the term of the loan. In any case, the installments can be set so that the monthly financial burden is not too high.
Acquisition of a stair lift and the advantages
A stairlift creates mobility in everyday life , as you can easily overcome stairs in your home. It brings a substantial relief and lets you master the everyday life still to a large extent alone in the familiar environment. You do not have to move into an age-appropriate, barrier-free apartment, because you can design your home barrier-free. Stairlifts offer comfort and are easy to use.
Variants of stairlifts
Stairlifts are available for indoor and outdoor use and can be made as customized solutions depending on the existing stairs. How expensive a stairlift is depends on the design. For stair lifts for straight stairs, the costs for the interior start at 4.800 euros, for the exterior at 5.800 euros.
Do you need a stairlift for curved stairs, you have to expect costs from 10.000 euros. A platform lift for straight stairs indoors costs from 11.000 euros. For all lift models, you can apply for a subsidy from the nursing care insurance fund or the kfw, as described in the article above. To finance the remaining costs, you can take out an installment loan.
Conclusion
A stair lift makes everyday life easier, as it provides more mobility in familiar surroundings. Before you buy a stairlift, you should find out about the possibilities for grants in your personal case. If there is a need for care, you are entitled to a subsidy from the health insurance company's care insurance fund from care level 1 up to 4.000 euros.
The kfw can provide a subsidy for the age-appropriate conversion of the house up to 5.000 euro grant. These subsidies can be combined with each other under certain circumstances. The remaining costs for the acquisition can be financed by an installment loan. The stairlift provider will provide advice and also information on financing options that can be coupled with grants from the long-term care insurance fund or kfw.