AIBU to feel horrified at the number of Motability vehicles being provided?

It’s just a custom made fabric ’wrapper’. I had one on my second hand car at the VW garage when I bought it. You get to pull it off and everyone claps 😂. They reuse them every time someone buys a car.

I think it's a huge amount, yes. I think the same people demosing PIP claimants are the ones refusing to see the immense damage done by 14 years of austerity.

bring down NHS waiting lists, to improve healthy life expectancy and remove structural inequalities, so people get prompt treatment for their conditions and they can get back to work, before they get more chronic and complex

Yes. I'd like to know how many people are claiming sick pay or becoming progressively more disabled as a direct effect of delayed NHS treatment. I think it's a lot.

Even at higher rate that is less than highest rate PIP, which is not acceptable.

They can claim Attendance Allowance though.

I agree that the system for people becoming disabled outside working age needs to change. The assumptions made about people over 65/67 are downright ageist. People's needs in terms of support with transport, cooking, care etc. don't change just because they happened to become disabled at an older age.

I'm 58, I do not plan to rely on the state pension.

Exactly so. So two pensioners with the same disability and/or mobility issues are treated differently. I wonder at the logic in the system.

@pointythings as an older pensioner, they can take the triple lock for me. My State Pittance is about £450 a month, so a small reduction in the percentage raise would make little difference.

I agree with all your suggestions, @LathkillDale, but it's worth pointing out that even with immigration, our population is still rapidly getting older. Matters would be considerably worse if we didn't have immigrants propping up the working age population.

The population has increased by 7.8 million since 2000! Clearly, uncontrolled immigration is not working, if the population has increased, but the pool of workers is dwindling?

Anyway, if the government wants to tackle disabled people, being unable to work, it needs to tackle:

1. the abysmal state of SEN education for many children with SEN, which doesn’t mean taking away the legal rights and accountability in the system, as the government is proposing to do at the moment
2. bring down NHS waiting lists, to improve healthy life expectancy and remove structural inequalities, so people get prompt treatment for their conditions and they can get back to work, before they get more chronic and complex
3. improve social care, to release more family carers to do productive work, and free up NHS beds for acute patients, by discharging elderly patients to somewhere suitable
4. disability discrimination in the workplace, rather than leaving affected individuals to police the system at employment tribunals
5. improving unemployment and disability benefits, as research shows, if people don’t have to spend their time worrying about how to meet basic needs, they are in a better frame of mind to get a job
6. improving the judicial system so young offenders and adult prisoners get rehabilitation through education and training, to equip them for a more productive life on release - given the high percentage of prisoners with illiteracy, ADHD, dyslexia and mental health problems
7. build more social housing, as per 5, because if people have somewhere reasonable and affordable to live, they are better able to work

I didn't know that @XenoBitch

No, they are different things.
PIP carries on and gets changed to an indefinite award.

Someone that gets to pension age that was not already on PIP will not be able to apply for it. They can apply for AA though, but that has no mobility element.

Does it not become attendance allowance?

PIP does not stop at pension age.

@OonaStubbs if pension age was lowed to 65 many would come off PIP and claim the pension they paid in for. It would also allow jobs for young people and respect for others.

Perhaps someone more technical than me can link the article? There is a gov campaign currently active. Please sign.

Motability, and other disability benefits allow disabled people to be productive, tax paying members of society, @OonaStubbs. Take away that support, and these people will become entirely reliant upon benefits to survive - and won’t pay any tax. Please explain how this is a financially astute move.

I also don’t care what Americans think about our welfare spending. It’s irrelevant to the discussion.

Absolutely, so you support removing the triple lock, investing in support to get and keep people in work and retaining Motability, which keeps disabled people in work and brings profits to the motor industry. Obviously.

Well it's true.

Back again to repeat yourself I see.

You're right. We should axe the triple lock. Would save a fortune. Unlike axing Motability.

But you can work and claim PIP? Funny how people talk about something needs to be done but ignores things like the ridiculous waiting lists for treatment

Pensioners then. They make up the largest amount of people reliant on the state.

Something needs to be done regardless of where your sympathies lie, we can't keep increasingly taxing a dwindling number of productive people to support an ever growing number of people reliant on the state. It's unsustainable.

I think something is wrong too but also don’t care what Yanks think of our welfare spending.

To all the posters opining on the difficulties of life for the non-disabled, I completely understand you. I know life is challenging for most people and it must be galling and frustrating to see the life of unimaginable ease and luxury all us disabled people live without ever having to lift a finger.
However, I am not going to say that you are not entitled to your feelings, I am actually going to give you some practical advice which should enable you to join our exclusive club.
While acquiring a genetic disability or systemic disabling condition overnight may be hard to achieve, I have a disability, for which I receive higher rate PIP in both components, which I think could be readily recreated at home, all you'd need is a strong stomach, a steady hand and probably a stiff drink or two.
I was very fortunate to have been born without eyes but for those who did not win the natal lottery like I did, I reckon gouging your own eyeballs out at home would be pretty straightforward, definitely easier than amputating your own legs and in instant passport to the PIP high-life. A bit of DIY surgery and, hey presto, you'll be driving off in your very own brand new, top of the range, tax-payer funded car. Well, not driving away exactly since you now can no longer see, but you can't have everything and life-long blindness is a small price to pay to join the PIP VIPs!
Good luck with the home surgery everyone!