Fancy cars for disabled people

[LemaxObsessive]

Motability.

I am sick to absolute death of seeing people saying on various threads, that Motability vehicles are “given” to us disabled people “for free”.

PIP is awarded in 2 separate elements.

1. Daily Living (day to day care needs etc)
2. Mobility

Each element is paid at different rates depending on how affected by your disability you are (and yes, medical evidence is required). However, to be eligible for Motability, you need to be getting the highest rate of the Mobility element. This is currently £77.05 per week (which works out at £308.20 per 4 weeks or £333.88 per month).

When you join Motability you agree for the DWP to give Motability that £77.05 per week instead of it being paid to your bank. If you also receive the Daily Living element of PIP then you will still receive that directly.

You ALSO, in most cases, have to pay an advance payment (AP) for the vehicle. The better the vehicle, the higher the AP. You do not get the AP back.
The £77.05 per week pays for the lease of the car, insurance, roadside assistance, tyres & windshield cover. Disabled people in receipt of the highest rate of the PIP mobility element are already exempt from road tax.

With regards to the ‘fancy’ cars such as BMW, Audi & Mercedes, as you can imagine all of these have a whopping great AP in the multiple thousands of pounds; Which as I said, you don’t get back.
The taxpayer is not paying a penny towards these vehicles besides the fact that Motability don’t currently pay VAT which I believe is up for discussion.

I think a really important point to make here is that PIP is categorically not means tested (even millionaires can claim it, provided their health meets the criteria) and is not paid to replace a disabled person’s income! In other words, people do not live off PIP instead of working, it is paid to cover the added costs associated with being disabled. Costs non-disabled people likely have never even considered, such as cleaners when we can’t do it, basic gardening when we can’t do it, extra electricity for when medical equipment is used at home, ready meals when we’re bed-bound, delivery charges for every single thing we buy because click & collect isn't possible, taxis to work because the bus always already has a wheelchair user on it, along with lots of other small but mounting costs we have zero choice but to pay because the alternative isn’t an option for us. The lowest rate of PIP is just £29.20 per week so we’re not talking big money!

Millions of PIP claimants work full time but crucially, couldn’t do so without PIP and in many cases, without Motability!

As I said above, even wealthy people are eligible to claim PIP to cover the added costs associated with their disability and they can, if they receive the highest rate of the Mobility Component of PIP choose to use Motability. If they want to spend £7,999 plus £77.05 per week to lease an Audi Q4 for 3 years then they can but not many do because it’s a lot of money to have nothing to show for it after 3 years.

So no, nobody is being ‘given free BMWs, Audis or Mercedes’ regardless of what’s being said by anyone!

I know nothing about benefits, because I’ve never claimed them.

But my grandmother very much has a Motability car that my cousin drives.

So I had a google and:

“Eligibility for mobility allowance over 65 depends on whether you are already receiving a qualifying benefit. If you already receive the higher rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA), the enhanced rate mobility component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), War Pensioners' Mobility Supplement (WPMS), or Armed Forces Independence Payment (AFIP), you are still eligible”

And:

“For everyone else aged 16 and over, at some point you'll need to claim PIP instead of DLA - even if you have a 'lifetime' or 'indefinite' award for DLA. The DWP expect this to happen in the next few years. If you've reached State Pension age and your DLA ended more than a year ago, you can't claim DLA or PIP”

So, she must still be on DLA because, sorry to disappoint you, but I am very much not lying.

😂😂😂😂😂😂

Claiming there is a 0% fraud rate on PIP seems very unlikely IMO.

In any case - fraud may be an issue, but actually I think on PIP the question most people are asking is ‘why are these the criteria we have chosen, and are they the right criteria?’ As the fact that so many more
people are claiming and managing to do so at higher rates… the question is more fundamental in its purpose and who is eligible.

Definitely not 😂

Not every who gets mobility allowance uses it for a mobility car. If the driver is the carer they can only use it for the foperson they care for. So if a child or adult goes for respite their mobility car goes with them the carer caring for them drive's it.

My son lives in supported housing with 3 other lads. Non of them have any mobility issues but they have a mobility car. Only the the residents and staff are insured to travel in it. It's really hard to get on the pathway to get a child diagnosed. So it really does piss me off when people say oh they want their kids to have ADHD for the money blah blah. Also his PIP money doesn't go to DS he see's non of that. His PIP money goes towards his care costs. He gets UC and his rent is paid but that's it.

I feel sorry for you actually. Hope things improve hun 👍

That wasn't quite my question. The PP said their options where -

1. Mobility car = go to work.
2. No mobility car = go on UC

I didn't understand and was asking why paying for your own car out of own earnings was not an option.

I tried to ask politely and wasn't having a go. There might be some very reasonable reason why paying for their own car to get to work wasn't an option.

Story keeps changing. So she has a life time dla award in her 80s just for knee pain 🤣

That’s your theory.

Other people have other theories as to how we have ended up in this scenario.

I don’t think it’s really conceivable the UK has had some unique situation that has impacted its populations health so severely over a short period of time - I think it’s probably got a lot more to do with economic incentives and the way we have set up our welfare system.

Couldn’t have put it better myself.

I wish my 22 DD was out living her best life, coming home a bit drunk with boyfriend troubles and girl drama. Instead she’s sitting with her plushies watching Balamory on YouTube.
I don’t want her new mobility car outside which she’ll never be able to drive herself. I want a 15 year old fiesta with L plates. I’d give anything for that.

But my story hasn’t changed at all.

As stated, I have no idea why she claims DLA.

The only issue I am aware she has is occasional knee pain, which she certainly didn’t have 20 plus years ago.

She applied for a car via Motability, which her granddaughter has sole use of.

I know no more than that.

It’s really strange that you find the very ordinary life of my grandmother so funny. You okay hun?

Seriously.

It's absolutely shit a friend of mine has brought her disabled granddaughter up from birth. She's now a young adult but she stopped getting carer's allowance from her when she started getting her pension. Even though she's still caring for her.

She did get some financial support off social services when she was a baby. But social services put it down on paper as him being in care which she was furious about. So she refused the financial support since.

This!

I think it’s probably got a lot more to do with economic incentives and the way we have set up our welfare system.

I have members of my own family who have been motivated in this exact way, but I’ve got people following my around this thread accusing me of lying. Absolutely desperate for me to be lying.

First you said its pip now you are saying she has lifetime dla for knee pain but now she didn't have knee pain 20 years ago so she got life time dla for nothing at all. Im interested in why you lied.

pp is a wheelchair user. If she needs a WAV with adaptations, it's very possible she may not be able to afford it without assistance from Motability or even have the adaptions she needs available through anywhere other than Motability.

I suppose the only thing about PIP is when eligibility is assessed it can be based on the assessors opinion whether a condition is worth 4 points or 2 points. This was why the ludicrous attempt to make it at least one 4 point even for standard 8 points was awful.

The Country needs to get Welfare Spending under control and the waste is going to bankrupt us but don't target PIP and ESA Support groups. The 'Migration' of ESA Support Group to UC is an attempt by the state to demean Disabled people and label them the same as Lazy Scroungers !

Have you ever seen a car for sale that has hand controls? What about other adaptions?

Standard 8 point PIP Daily award.

Why not?

I see this all the time. People in uproar because they know 110% x person is definitely on the fiddle, complain about how outrageous it is the country is being done over by all these fraudsters and it must be stopped, but yet they never report them

Many of us will know someone who is legitimately entitled to higher rate PIP who gets a mobility car that is then used by a relative & not for the benefit of the claimant. There might very well be some coercion to do this. I think this is where a lot of people see it as fraud. The claimant gets no benefit of having the vehicle that their PIP is paying for & their relative has a free car. I can see why this would piss people off!

My family member has always had to get a higher spec than basic model of any car because they need an automatic and additional adjustments and that never starts as basic level. But you can guarentee people have made the assumption. we have had people complain they are not disabled and using a disable spot. Makes me want to brain the moaner with family members artifial legs Wouldnt be the first time we have had to help out with the down payment to make sure they have as much independence as possible

The depth of ignorance of some of the posters on here does not surprise me.

We had a motability car for my son because of his needs. He died this year, aged just 19. So at least that saved some of you a few quid in taxes eh.

also some cars dont suit wheelchairs.

I support having a scheme for supporting mobility and clearly people with disabilities who are unable to afford a car of their own should be supported. I have to say though OP I am shocked by your post -how can you possibly be charged the same for insurance on a £100k car as on a £20k one? Someone is paying for that difference in cost? Also the cost of leasing the car is usually vastly different on a more expensive car, so again someone somewhere (the taxpayer?) must be paying for that, even if BMW or whoever do give Motability the cars at a cheaper cost.