RAF Disabled Holiday Trust
Providing accessible holidays for disabled RAF Family and their dependents
The RAF Benevolent Fund is proud to support the RAF Disabled Holiday Trust, as part of our welfare services for members of the RAF Family. The RAF Disabled Holiday Trust believes everybody deserves a stress-free holiday, free from the worry of whether accommodation is accessible or not.
We have a wonderful selection of places to stay, all over the UK, which meet the needs of whole families or accompanying carers with a wide range of leisure activities and pursuits.
To meet its aims, the Trust has invested in the Holiday Property Bond and currently offers over eighty holidays each year in the UK. Each accommodation unit has been adapted extensively to make it suitable for disabled people, particularly those in wheelchairs, with wide door widths and level access showers.
The apartments are fully equipped and include linen and maid service. For attendees requiring additional specialist mobility equipment such as recliner chairs, hoists, and hospital beds during their holiday we can assist with sourcing items locally for short term rental.
Holiday costs including travel, insurance, food, drink, specialist mobility equipment rental and other incidentals are the responsibility of the attendees.
About the Trust
Like everyone else, disabled people need a holiday. That can be more easily said than done since they need specially adapted accommodation within normal holiday surroundings.
The aim of the Trust, the first of its kind, is to make it possible for current and former RAF personnel and their dependents with a severe disability to take holidays on equal terms with non-disabled people.
An important part of this aim is to enable families, immediate family members and carers (if required) to holiday together in a suitably adapted property integrated with the rest of the community.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The Trust was formed in 1982 to provide accessible holiday accommodation for people with physical disabilities.
Some had experienced problems whilst on holiday causing sufficient frustration to destroy their will to try again. Despite assurances, they had arrived at their costly destinations only to find that the doors were too narrow, bathrooms and toilets inaccessible, rooms too small, lifts too tight, beds too high or too low, and a multitude of steps to contend with.
In other words, they could not get the access they needed. Since 1982, hundreds of people have enjoyed stress free holidays in beautiful locations which they would not be able to experience without DHT.
A list of holiday locations available is shown below. Further details on each location are available to download below in our brochure. Access guides for each location are also available via the links.
England
Blore Hall, Peak District - access guide
Buckland Court, Cotswolds - access guide
Duloe Manor, Cornwall - access guide
Langton House, Dorset - access guide
Lodge Yard, Askrigg, Yorkshire Dales - access guide
Lower Knapp Farm, Devon - access guide
Lucker Hall, Northumberland - access guide
Merlewood, Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria - access guide
Northway Court, Devon - access guide
Sibton Park, Kent - access guide
Upper Norton, Shropshire - access guide
Scotland
Coo Hall, Galloway - access guide
Tigh Mor Trossachs, Perthshire - access guide
Wales
Henllys, Anglesey - access guide
St Brides Castle, Pembrokeshire - access guide
Useful Documents
Download a full listing of all our holidays
Read the HPB Rules and Regulations
To apply for a holiday please complete our application form.
Serving and Ex-RAF personnel who are disabled, or whose dependent is disabled, can apply for an accessible holiday with the Disabled Holiday Trust.
Our eligibility criteria for the Disabled Holiday Trust are:
- The qualifying person has a disability that prevents them from using ‘standard’ hotel accommodation and meets one of the below:
- Be registered blind.
- Receive the higher rate of DLA/PIP Mobility.
- Receive the War Pensioners’ Mobility Supplement.
- Receive an on-going Guaranteed Income Payment for having a permanent disability causing an inability or significant difficulty in walking.
- Receive Attendance Allowance.
We offer holiday accommodation free of charge to those who meet the disability criteria and are on a means tested benefit.
Means tested benefits include:
- Pension Credit
- Universal Credit
- Income Support
- Income related Employment and Support Allowance
- Income based job seekers allowance
- Housing benefit
- Working and child tax credits
This must be evidenced by 3 months of bank statements or an entitlement letter (less than 3 months old) in line with the Funds welfare policy.
Those who are not on a means tested benefit will be asked to contribute a nominal amount towards the cost of the holiday.
It is a condition that the qualifying person goes on the holiday.
The Trust invests in the Holiday Property Bond, a commercial organization with properties that are suitably adapted for the severely disabled.
The objective is to integrate disabled people into holiday developments primarily for the use of able-bodied people in self-catering accommodation where there is a choice between a restful break and full participation in normal holiday and social activities. The Trust undertakes the co-ordination of the holiday reservation process.
The holiday facilities it provides are long-term acquisitions, so funds invested are not spent on one-off holidays – it goes on helping many disabled people year after year. We offer self-catering holiday accommodation free of charge to those who meet the disability criteria and are on a means tested benefit. Those who are not on a means tested benefit will be asked to contribute a nominal amount towards the cost of the holiday. In special cases the trust will make a referral for financial support to the RAF Benevolent fund for travel or other incidental costs.
Once a beneficiary has a holiday with the Trust, they go to the bottom of the waiting list and gradually work their way back up to the top. We aim to offer a holiday every 2-3 years.
For more information about the RAF Disabled Holiday Trust, please get in touch.
- Address: The Royal Air Force Disabled Holiday Trust, 67 Portland Place, London W1B 1AR
- Email: rafdht@rafbf.org.uk
- Telephone: 020 7307 3338
Applications can be made online or by downloading our application form and posting it to us.
Make your application online
A printable version of the application form is available here to download.