AMPUTEE Dave Braithwaite  says he has become a prisoner  in his home after being told he  will have to pay for a stair lift.

Mr Braithwaite, 57, of Bernadette Close, Whipton, had his  left leg amputated below the  knee in January after suffering  from septicaemia.

While at the Royal Devon &  Exeter Hospital, where the operation was carried out, he said  he was told by social services  that he would be eligible for a  stair lift for his first-floor flat.

He was also given a statement  of need which called the stair lift  “necessary and appropriate”  and under a section headed degree of urgency, he was put in  the danger category.

But Mr Braithwaite has just  been told he cannot have one  unless he pays the £2,000 cost.

The University of Exeter   night security worker, based at  the St Luke’s campus in Heavitree Road, was told he and his  wife of 38 years Jane, also 57, a  catering assistant at the university, earn too much to be  eligible for a stair lift from social services.

But the pair have no savings  and claim they are being penalised.

Mr Braithwaite said: “I was  told I need a stair lift and that I  would get one. But nobody said I  had to pay for one.”

The decision by Mr Braithwaite to return home, where his  wife presently cares for him full  time, was made because he  thought he would be getting a  stair lift. He said: “I got sent  home on Monday, February 22,  which was my birthday.

“I said I wanted to come home  thinking a stair lift would be  fitted.

“But the next day, social services said it was means tested  and because I am being paid by  the university I am earning too  much money so we have to pay  for it all — and the price is  £2,000.

“It is like a prison sentence —  I am housebound.”

His next hospital appointment is on Monday, March 22,  meaning he will have been  housebound for a month.

He added: “If I had been told I  might have to lose my leg in  advance, I could have planned  for it. But I didn’t know.”

Mrs Braithwaite said: “It was  a nasty  shock.

“If they had left him a few  days more it could have been his  whole leg or could have gone  further.”

Mr Braithwaite is on full pay  from the university for six  months and will be on half pay  for six after that. But he said he  and his wife have no savings  after filing for bankruptcy in  2007.

Mr Braithwaite, who praised  the doctors and surgeons at the  RD&E, said he had been told it  could take up to nine months to  get him back to full working  order, probably through the use  of a prosthetic limb.

A Devon County Council  spokesman said: “A disabled facilities grant is offered to applicants who are unable to meet  the cost of an adaptation.

“This is means tested using a  national scale set by central  government.

“For anyone who is not eligible for a disabled facilities  grant, we investigate other  sources of funding such as the  major adaptations panel, who  reassess the circumstances and  may be able to offer financial  support such as an interest free  loan.”