Hi
My 18 year old is in receipt of enhanced mobility PIP. We can get a motability car with it.
I never considered it before as I already have a car. My husband did too , until recently . Now he needs my car ( he earns more and works longer hours , not possible with public transport ) . I take my child everywhere - social groups , days out , meeting friends etc . This has been impacted slightly but not massively with me not having the car all the time .
However , my husband has a new job . 6 days per week and longer hours. This means that the things I take my child to that they rely on are not going to be possible . Nor will the days out ( related to a specific hobby that means a lot to them ) . She also hates being in the house and when I had the car was always with me everywhere - shopping , drives out etc . Now that we can’t do that it is really having an affect and will be worse with the new job . Adding up what I spend on taxis for work, alongside the taxis now for social groups and any days out , I feel that getting a car through motability might be a good option.
However - I will be using it for work too . Is this allowed ? Obviously my work benefits my child and I only work when they are at college ( I do work less in the holidays and I guess would be happy to still get a taxi there if I wasn’t allowed to use the car as it’s not when she is in college ) but realistically me working and using it would be benefitting her due to income and it’s not like she would be getting the bus to places because I have the car and she can’t use it - she can’t drive !!
Am I allowed to use it for work ? It’s not a job that I need my car for ( as in I’m not using the car for a business like deliveries etc ) it’s just going to and from work .
What about if I have a day off for example - am I allowed to use it to take my other children to school ( I don’t do school runs as I work but just if I did happen to have a day off / I may be moving jobs to one where I work from home sometimes so if I was able to do school runs could I ? ) or if I was off and I wanted to get the shopping done or go to see someone could I if my child wasn’t with me ? ) - this really is hypothetical as at the moment I work every day my child is in college .
aside from work there is no other time I would really use it Without her - she’s with me all the time and if , for eg , me and my husband went away or went out for a date night we would have the other car so use that .
I just don’t want to get it and then be worrying and assessing every time I get in it as to whether this particular journey benefits them. Do they expect it to be used as the main car, so in that sense not every single journey is for the disabled child but on the whole it is ?
I know of someone in the same situation who uses it as their general car - but they don’t work so day to day they use it when their 19 year old disabled child is at work but they take them to work and collect them .