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!

Well my dh could give up work so he could drive my son Everywhere but then we'd would get even more benefits and people wouldn't like that either ....

If if he didn't have the mobility car, he would have to buy a car anyway?

The kids I know who go to special school by taxi, one has a mobility car as well (neither parent work) don't know about the other one.

Some old people, my DH for example, get DLA not AA so removing AA doesn't remove all old people.

Yes we are allowed to use it as a family car
People have many misconceptions about what mobility cars can be used for and think the disabled person has to be in the car all the time that's not true
It has to be for the benefit of the disabled person and his dad working benefits him as it keeps a roof over his head
For all those jealous of my sons car
Would you like to swap places with me
My son is severely autistic non verbal nearly 16 but cognitively a toddler challenging, behaviour, needs 1:1 support for everything?
No i didn't think so.

We have never pursued the scan, when they put electrodes into the skull; but I would have thought a parent’s refusal to allow the basic tests like an EEG, MRI scan, video telemetry, etc would trigger suspicions of FII syndrome (aka Münchausen’s syndrome by proxy); and possibly the doctors appealing to the Courts for permission to carry out these tests in the child’s best interests, regardless of what the parents thought, given epilepsy is potentially life threatening and the drugs have unpleasant side effects.

DD was under Great Ormond St, and they are certainly familiar with appealing to the Courts in high profile cases.

Yes he would however my son is entitled due to having severe mental impairment not all children even in a special school are entitled because they dont meet the criteria for severe mental impairment.

Other jobs with other hours are available or are you rural or is he disabled with limited jobs available? I appreciate that finding another job isn’t easy but it is doable for most, but plenty of other people manage to take their child(Yes even children with special needs) to school and work. It makes no sense imo for the tax payer to pay twice over for the same child. But I don’t know your precise circumstances which are unique to you and really that’s between you and the council. But as a general principle (With room for exceptions) I find it completely insane that tax payers pay twice over for transport and that councils that are already struggling are accommodating this.

Would you like to change places with me so you too can have a shiny new car?

The "taxpayer" isn't paying out twice. It's 2 completely separate things.

DLA higher rate would be paid regardless of whether it goes to the family directly, or to motability for a car. Same cost no matter which. The family could use that to fund taxis/buses/their own car/walkers/scooters...whatever they deem best for their child's transport needs.

School transport is council regulated. Each council has a different system and if a child meets the criteria, transport is provided. It is available for all children, nothing to do with disability. It is more common for children with disabilities because they tend to have to travel further to a suitable school.

I might be biased though because my local authority effectively fucked itself over by providing two lots of the same service to the same people. It benefited me for a while as I got employed in a WFH job relating to it but even then I knew that it was madness and not sustainable to provide two lots of service(Not transport) to the same people. Especially when plenty of other disabled people couldn’t even access that form of help once let alone twice. Inevitably the costs became too much and I and dozens of others were made redundant. I’m still not sure of the logic behind that decision but there’s little consistency or logic in care imo.

Yeah and most people's teenagers can take themselves to school even some with special needs
Mine however will never be able to travel anywhere independently.

I hate this argument. Decisions such as council and government budgets should be based on logic not on emotional blackmailing. And no, no shiny car for me thanks. Without a driver it wouldn’t be much use to me anyway thanks.

We've got a Sportage, didn't know it was a fancy car. It's not a mobility car. We bought it seven years ago as it was the best car we found for DH to get in and out of due to his mobility issues.

Wait till I tell him it's classed like a BMW. He hates BMWs..

There are some unbelievable attitudes on display in this thread. Utterly repulsive

This is a rich country, services are struggling because of decades of austerity. Not because of disabled people being given help.

Instead of resentment towards the disabled, re direct it towards the mega rich.

Your cup of humanity is overflowing

They are still paying out twice no matter if it’s different departments/authorities. And I don’t just apply that to children with special needs. For example in my area children all get free bus passes. Imo even if you’re over the boundary limits(within reason) and therefore receive free transport and aren’t disabled then you should be using the free bus pass to get to school unless it is near impossible for you to get to school in time due to lack of buses, extreme distance, no pavements etc then exceptions should be made.

Apologies for not living in Lala Land where the magic money trees grow profusely. Of course they should be based on logic. It might make you feel better to throw 100K at all the Mrs Bs out there because of their extremely difficult circumstances but that means Mrs As go without even though their needs are different but no less. And that there’s little to no money for essential services. Councils are responsible for all of the people who live in their local authority area not just your favoured few. They have to try to balance everyone’s needs so yes logic is absolutely essential. And yes that can mean giving more to Mrs B because of her circumstances and that can be a logical decision but it absolutely does mean that there’s less in the pot for others. And even if you quadruple the budget difficult decisions will still have to be made because there’s always more that you could do, always someone or something that could benefit from extra money and costs will still continue to rise.

Motability cars can be used as family cars. Just as they aren't going to expect him to buy a car for work only, they aren't going to expect him to change jobs to avoid using the Motability car for work when him working benefits the child and the child has alternative transport.

It's the same as us except my son's school is walking distance away so we never use the car to take him to school which means if my husband is working and I don't need the car for an appointment, he takes the car to work instead of getting the bus.

As I said. 🤷‍♀️

And btw I am actually in favour of changes that would benefit disabled people. I think that the 16K limit for PIP is ridiculous. I do agree that there should be a limit but it should be higher. A lot of disability equipment like a decent power chair costs a fortune and people should not be penalised for saving up to buy equipment or for having enough money to buy a new boiler should that go or savings to get them through a year if they lose their job or other income sources.

Likewise the NHS would use money more efficiently if they bought better and yes, more expensive, equipment that actually worked for people rather than have a lower financial limit for a wheelchair that’s completely unsuitable and inevitably gets returned or causes more health problems to the user. That seems logical to me.

No more than your cup of common sense. Are you really so deluded that you think that governments and councils should be run solely based on emotion and that logic and financial constraints shouldn’t be a factor? You’d have the whole country completely bankrupt within a week.

If the family are using the DLA mobility money to fund taxis to appointments, no they are not paying out twice by being provided transport to school. It's completely separate. Some might overlap, but not automatically.

As for your free bus pass area, they will already be assessing the need to provide transport and it would only be awarded for certain criteria so that already happens.

The criteria has not changed since the introduction of the free bus passes. Hopefully it will do so soon. And hopefully public transport will be improved, though it’s still feasible for most, but that’s another rant. And I was specifically talking about parents of schoolchildren who have a Motability vehicle because of the child.

You didn't know a Sportage was a high spec car? Just look at prices.

Because im paying for it and the country is drowning in debt. To me there shouldn't be a choice. A cheap car will do the same as your volvo will it not and help keep costs down??