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Original poster

Misuse of Motability vehicles.

104 replies

fifitot · 16/04/2011 11:43

Just sounding as just this week 2 of my friends got brand new cars under this scheme. If you don't know, someone getting a high rate of disability allowance can get this paid direct to a car dealer and get a brand new car which includes free insurance and servicing costs. No problem with that at all. Even if the person cannot drive themselves they can have a named driver but the issue is that the car must be primarily for the use of the disabled person, even if it is as a passenger, or for doing errands for them etc. It s a good scheme that assists disabled people.

It is not for relatives to scam the system and get a brand new car which is parked miles away in another town, never to be used by the disabled person themselves or in connection with that person. 2 people I know have recently got cars by conspiring with their parents/brother. These cars are parked outside their own homes, they never use them in connection with their relatives and are quite open about how they have 'played the system'. It really bloody annoys me.

And don't even get me started on the misuse of the blue badges!

OP posts:
HecateQueenOfTheNight · 16/04/2011 17:36

pay extra? Confused I had a motability car for years. You pay the deposit and then the rest is paid by your mobility element of DLA. for better cars, you pay a bigger deposit. I only know about lease, not HP because I only ever had lease vehicles.

In all my conversations with motability, it was never suggested to me that I could get a better car for an extra monthly payment. I am surprised to learn this.

Lease cars are always new cars, are they not? the HP ones can be older?

KaraStarbuckThrace · 16/04/2011 17:38

Sorry I don't think I made that clear, the payment FIL makes is a one off.

Original poster
fifitot · 16/04/2011 21:34

amberleaf - I actually do know the details as I have been told them.

I am not jealous just outraged that a system set up to assist disabled people is so easily abused. I have my own nice car which amazingly I pay for myself instead of out of someone else's benefit.

My now deceased sister was severely disabled and as a family we never benefited from motability schemes and blue badges as they weren't around when she was alive. This is why it outrages me so much.

I'm not going to report them - how can I, they are friends. However I have told them I think their morality on this issue is askew. The karma police will get them I think!

OP posts:
DarthNiqabi · 16/04/2011 21:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sandietoo · 21/04/2011 20:00

A neighbour of mine has a mobility car, one of the bigger ones that takes 7 people. It's her mum who is disalbed and she pays some of the money to her mum so that her mum can afford the reduction in her DLA. She uses it all the time for stuff that has nothing to do with the disabled person. She is involved in a local community group here and she uses it to ferry people around all over the place because its a 7 seater I even see her using it to take stuff like slabs etc to her allotment. It's clear abuse. Is it right to just turn a blind eye?

LottyGee · 17/08/2012 11:02

I work with a man whose partner has a disabled daughter. He uses the car for work while his partner has to walk her kids to school. I have found out that if the car is not being used for the benefit of the named disabled person, this invalidates your insurance.

valiumredhead · 17/08/2012 11:09

It's very hard to get a blue badge - even harder to get higher rate mobility and the cars aren't free, they have to be paid for still.

gallifrey · 17/08/2012 11:36

I used to work at a residential college for teenagers with disabilities, one of the residents that lived there had a motobility car but her parents used to drive around in it while she was away at college!! A few times we said to the managers that it should be there for her use and at the college but nothing ever came of it!

geegee888 · 17/08/2012 11:46

So would this be a misuse of a motability car? Who should I "report" it to/who would do something about it (tbh not sure I would report someone!):

Colleague of my DH's, a highly paid engineer, has a disabled wife who has a mobility vehicle which she never drives herself. He uses it to drive to work each day, it is his only car. DH knows this because he actually boasts about it and how he saves money from not paying for his own car.

SoleSource · 17/08/2012 13:16

I think you are jealous too. I always paid fpr my own cats tio. Amazing isn't it? Motability cars are never anything to be jealous about. Veiled jealousy.

deepbreath · 17/08/2012 13:16

The Motability car does not always have to be driven with the disabled person in it, but at least has to be used for the benefit of the disabled person. A close relative using the car to go to work may be just about covered by that, if they are earning money to help support the disabled person.

TheQueenOfDiamonds · 17/08/2012 13:21

I'm surprised the disabled relative agreed to it - My mum and partner have a motability car. Its my mums partners, my mum is named driver as partner can't drive because she was banned. She loses £45 a week from her DLA for it though - That's a large ammount to lose if you're still shelling out for busses and taxis.

LilyCocoplatt · 17/08/2012 13:27

I don't think that using a motability car for other things outwith the times that the disabled person whose benefits are paying for it needs it is abuse, the petrol isn't free and what's the sense in having a car sitting there unused? As long as the car is used for the benefit of the person it is intended for and they are okay with their carer(s) using it for their personal use at other times what's the problem?

AMumInScotland · 17/08/2012 13:30

The Motability website gives details on how to report misuse of the scheme www.motabilitycarscheme.co.uk/main.cfm?type=CCSC if people have genuine reasons to believe that this is the case.

thebestisyettocome · 17/08/2012 13:34

Hecate
I always thought you lost all the payments you were entitled to if you opted for the motability scheme. Is this not right?

JuliaScurr · 17/08/2012 13:38

Darth yy - costly adaptations exclude severely disabled

As the recent cases of disabled mothers who were told they couldn't sit with their dp & dc's at the Paralympics - we don't live in isolation as disabled people, we have families. No one in my family can use the train because I can't - so we're all disabled, we all need the car. If my dp can't use my motability car to get to work, we would need to buy another car for him. So as a family living on benefits (see rules on Carer's Allowance) we'd have to buy/lease 2 cars, thus destroying any useful benefit of the Motability scheme.

WilsonFrickett · 17/08/2012 13:40

If you think there's genuine abuse, either of the scheme or of the disabled person involved, then report it.

I have to say though, if I was disabled and my DH used the car to drive to work to earn money to keep a roof over his disabled wife's head, I wouldn't count that as abusing the system.

WelshMaenad · 17/08/2012 13:43

Geegee, if he uses it to travel to work and us working for the benefit of the disabled person (ie is supporting her) that is considered valid use. I could get one with dd's mobility and use it to commute to work.

Pagwatch · 17/08/2012 13:44

Did someone really resurrect a zombie thread justo post another 'I know someone abusing the system' pile of cack?

Summerblaze · 17/08/2012 13:44

Someone I know has a mobility car as she has a mild problem with her legs. She doesn't drive so her DH does. He works full-time so takes the car to work everyday and she goes shopping, visit family etc by walking or going on the bus.

NarkedRaspberry · 17/08/2012 13:45

Report it or feck off.

WilsonFrickett · 17/08/2012 13:46

oh bugger, it's a zombie thread, thanks Pag

Pagwatch · 17/08/2012 13:46

What Narked Raspberry said. Only without the 'report it or..'

Debs75 · 17/08/2012 13:48

You only lose the mobility part of dla, you keep the personal care part.
If you get higher rate, which you have to to be eligible you lose £54(ish) but are still paid £70(ish) each week.

we have one for our disabled son, he is at school most of the time so he is rarely in it. It is used for his benefit though, family shopping, even taking his annoying sisters out so he can have some quiet time at home with dp is for his benefit. if a parent works then it can be used for travelling to work as that is a direct benefit for the disabled person.
Tax exemption is different, the disabled person must be in the car then.

FWIW the people in OP's case will of likely lost the car now as new rules came in this year and they are a lot stricter. you have to live within 5 miles of the disabled claimaint to be on the insurance and they have taken cars off false drivers.

starfishmummy · 17/08/2012 13:51

the best you hand over the mobility component of DLA if you opt for a motability car; but many disabled people will also get a care component as well, which is retained.

You dont actually "lose" the payments as Motability is a charity and not part of the DWP; you just agree that the mobility allowance is paid to them rather than you.