To think this is a good deal and we should take the money

[TastingTheRainbow]

Been struggling to decide this all day so hoping you can help.

My son has special needs and will be starting at a special needs high school in September that's 35 miles away (40 minutes in no traffic).

He is entitled to travel assistance as this is the closest school that could accommodate him and we have not sent him so far away by choice, plus we are a low income family. We thought this would be via a taxi but have had a letter saying if we transport him ourselves the LA will pay us £6800 a year.

That seems an unbelievable amount of money! My quick sums have calculated that with that money we could buy a car (we would need a second car as I take the only one to work), insure it and keep it on the road, cover the petrol cost required for the journey and still have money left over. Plus we then have the convieneve of two cars full time which we really need just can't afford.

If we say no to the money they will organise a taxi. This will be more inflexible however and will pick up at a set time, only waiting for 2 minutes, and can't be changed if he has after school clubs etc. We would then need to collect anyway.

AIBU to think that while it will may be a PITA to do the school run that far every day the money they are offering makes it the better option?

In the interest of fairness I should say it would be my partner not me doing the school run as I work full time and she dosnt. I have said it is her choice to decide however, she just thinks I may be missing the 'catch' somehow.

I think the council is conning you. Tell them that you will drive him if you get mileage at a realistic rate, and otherwise you'll opt for the taxi. They will still be saving money.

Agree with this and I see they have upped it already. Say that you have to make some allowance for DPs time, ask for £12,000 and see how high they go.

I would take the money, at least try it for a year. Your DP will have use of the car in the school holidays while you're at work and could possibly spend the whole day near the school sometimes - shopping, appointments, lunch - instead of coming home and back again. It would be ideal if she could find part time work nearer the school. If you took the taxi option and your son had after school activities, how would your DP be able to pick him up if you have the only car at work? Good luck finding a car

Say that you have to make some allowance for DPs time, ask for £12,000 and see how high they go.

Given that they have upped it once, perhaps it is a good idea to ask.

I have re-read all OPs posts, and noticed that the council would have to pay not only for a taxi, but also for someone to accompany your son in the taxi. That would cost them a lot. Your DP would be doing both the driver's job, and also the job of the person accompanying your son. In addition, the council would have to organise all of this, including any days off by the companion.

It is not just mileage costs that they should offer you, but something that reflects what they would be paying for the companion.

I would definitely go back with a counter offer. Work out what is worth your while and go in higher. Your wife will have it hard - all that driving or alternatively hanging around somewhere away from home for hours on end for weeks on end, which will be very tiring. It has to be worth your while. Don't accept this final offer. Go in higher, negotiate. If she could then find a small job on top close to your DS's school that would be great, even volunteering a couple of days a week would lighten it a bit. Ideally a paid job would be good for at least a few days to save driving it 4 times a day. Perhaps volunteering in a local school as a way of getting a foot in the door to paid employment. Good luck.

My understanding is that Personal Travel Budget is not counted as income for tax/benefits purposes (e.g info from Hillingdon Council). It isn't the same thing as business mileage/expenses.

I'm really confused now over all the tax implications. I don't think they will go higher and to be honest I'm not out to get all I can from the LA. If it's worth while financially we will do it if not we won't. I don't think it's going to work though because we're struggling to find a suitable car. Looking around the £2.5k range and they all seem to be high mileage or too small for us and a loan car or hire purchase wouldn't be any good as we then couldn't afford to continue the payments after this year and our income on paper isn't high enough to prove we can afford the repayments.

I haven't read the thread, just wanted to say that I keep very good financial records, and used to commute through the London congestion zone to work 30 miles away, and even in my most expensive year, I did not spend as much as £6800 on my car. (The most expensive year was £6500, but that included £2000 of congestion charge, so call it £4500. With congestion charge excluded I spent less than £5000 in all years.)

I bought my previous two cars for about £6000 each time then kept them for several years until they were worth nothing, so the depreciation averaged out at under £100 a month.

(The outlay on a new car doesn't count as expenditure in my accounts, I treat the payment as a transfer to a car account then deduct depreciation at a monthly rate that will reduce the car account to zero by the time the car is ten years old.)

Despite my previous post saying I did do the special school taxiing myself and loathed it, I think it's really worth considering now the amount is more doable. Your DP is keen and you both desperately want a second car and have no other option of getting one.

I would do it for a year. It will be very onerous for your DP (at least it was for me) but she seems okay about doing it for the payoff of having the car.

And I agree with PP that I didn't think this allowance was taxable.

TastingTheRainbow - it's not about getting all you can get out of the LA, it's about getting an amount that is economically viable for you to do it, which it doesn't seem to be at yet. You'll probably still be saving the LA money. I'd advise speaking to HMRC about the tax implications to clarify that first. Would it make any difference if your wife and DS use your car and you get another? Anyone know how much hiring a car is monthly as well?

Another thing to bear in mind, apologies if I've missed someone else saying it, with the school being 25 miles away, consider how you would deal with travelling to parents evenings, statement review meetings, teacher meetings, Xmas plays, school fairs, late pick ups after school trips, etc etc. a second car may be useful as our taxi obviously doesn't cover these items.

Another thing I have found is that DCs friends are all based locally to the school. So it's difficult to deal with "come round for tea" etc as transport is an issue. Not complaining about my DC having friends though!

There are pros and cons to each scenario, perhaps make a list and compare them?

I think other posters are right about it not being taxable due to it being a personal travel budget rather than a mileage allowance. I think I got sidetracked by all the talk of how much per mile it was working out at and the fact that my own is classed as a mileage allowance rather than a personal travel budget.

OP I hrtft but have you considered leasing? If you could get a deal with low initial outlay this would be a safe way of getting a reliable car with only fuel costs to consider.

Seems very harsh that your child's additional needs warrant a special school but are not considered sufficient to make him eligible for higher rate DLA and hence motability. Have you definitely explored all the appeals etc there? Remember they are quick to fob off everyone's first application.

@DisconcertedandRetired:

when I posted that my car is 25p/mile to move from A to B, that was with fuel economy of about 58mph avg and less than £200 on repairs in the last 2.5 yrs. Plus I spent £350 on winter tyres but I can't remember if I counted those in the variable or fixed costs, right now.

So what fuel economy did you get to pay much less than 25p/mile?

I also second what someone up the page said. Go to a garage and get a brand new car and you will have piece of mind, no problems and it will be reliable. I don't think you are meant to be making money off this deal. Why would you spend £1500 to £2000 on a car that might not last. If you spent the rest of the money and the car broke down and you couldn't replace it, I think they might expect you to pay it back.

The OP won't be able to keep up the payments on a new car if they decided to revert to a taxi after a year though deste.

Just to give you an idea of leasing costs with high mileage: I just had a quick look on Parkers website. For an annual mileage of 20,000 you can get a Nissan Micra (5 door) for £96 per month with an upfront payment of £576. Term was 48 months. Might this be doable?

Sorry also meant to say you could also do the same 20,000 mileage over a 12 month term for a Citroen C1 for £103 per month and £617 upfront.

Then you are not committed to anything more than a year and would have documentation from your local authority to show your ability to pay for those 12 months. Just a thought.

Seems very harsh that your child's additional needs warrant a special school but are not considered sufficient to make him eligible for higher rate DLA and hence motability

Plenty of children at special schools can walk very well and have few or no behavioural problems and are therefore not eligible for mobility allowance. Attending a special school doesn't mean that a child meets the criteria for any mobility rate (and it is quite strict criteria for the higher rate).

AA gives per mile running costs for brand new vehicles (so no repairs or MOT required) at 18.5 - 29p/mile. Older cars are normally more per mile.

Those petrol costs seem low to me, though. We got 4-5 miles per £1 spent on petrol. Sheesh, is the avg new car doing more like 72 mpg now?

Oven chips, that's the kind of deal I was meaning.

Ah, I didn't realise that I am. My DC's school has lots of kids with mild to moderate additional needs so I wrongly assumed kids at a special school would have very severe mobility or behavioural problems

It depends on the school and the child tinkly. A child with Down syndrome for example might be fully mobile and able to use public transport and walk very well so he probably wouldn't qualify for mobility allowance and certainly wouldn't qualify for the higher rate but he still might be best suited to a special PMLD school due to his specific learning needs. Another child might have less severe learning needs but be at an autism specific school because he has ASD and that is the best school for him.

There are lots of children who have significant learning needs but can travel well on public transport.
Even if a child has severe behavioural needs, severe learning difficulties and ASD they would need to be on the higher rate care component of DLA to automatically get the higher mobility rate (and getting the higher rate of the care component means that they need a lot of care during the daytime as well as the nighttime).
There are lots of children at my sons special school (PMLD) who get high rate mobility but there are also lots who don't qualify for it.

That seems very harsh I am I must admit I'd assumed that a child with Down would get higher rate, even if they were physically capable of walking.