To get a motability car ( and also what’s allowed ?! )

[Justnavigating]

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 .

Aah sorry didn't realize that. Might be different for some councils?

Surely the wage the op received from going to work benefits her child - it helps pay to feed and cloth them, pays for their activities and groups, etc.

If applies in all areas of England. I’m not sure about Wales, Scotland and NI. This is the link showing who automatically qualifies for a blue badge in England.

@Hoosemover she doesn’t get it under the “ moving around “ criteria , it’s “ planning and following a journey “ so with our council , a blue badge isn’t automatic .

she can walk and has no physical disability. You can get it under safety issues ( eg no awareness of danger , likely to run off ) but she isn’t like that. She doesn’t have a massive awareness of danger but she wouldn’t run in a car park , she understands about road safety etc . When she was younger then it was an issue - I remember having to hold on to her and the shopping trolley across the car park but now it isn’t like that . The only way a blue badge would benefit her would be not having to drive around for ages looking for a space - this can be distressing for her admittedly ( just like she can’t queue and we use queue passes ) but is very rare that we go somewhere where we have to drive around looking for a space for a period of time that causes that distress .

In all honesty , even if she did automatically qualify , I wouldn’t use it. I have seen enough people struggling to get out of cars due to disability when they are parked in normal bays because the disabled are full that I couldn’t take one of those bays when it makes no difference whatsoever to me to park in a normal one .

It would only really benefit me for pure convenience! That’s not fair and would be total abuse of the system

I think prices are the same with each dealer but different dealers offer different cars. The waits between dealers seems similar too. Insurance is covered and you won't pay for that because it's covered by the scheme. Makes no difference how old your DC is provided they have 1 year of award left. You can have 3 named drivers on insurance policy. Makes no difference if your DC drives the car or not. If you get the Peugeot 208 you won't have to pay anything as government give an allowance of £750. I was asked if I wanted the allowance to be put towards the upfront cost. I said yes and got DC a Peugeot 2008 and the upfront cost was covered completely.

If DD won’t be wanting to/able to learn to drive in the time period of the lease it doesn’t matter what car you get in relation to DD’s age. However, if DD potentially will want to you need to make sure it is suitable for under 25s. Not all are. Some (maybe all?) of the Peugeot 208s aren’t.

We do this. I am about to get ds new car and for the third time he is on the insurance and has his learner driving license. He hasn’t driven our current car at all. The previous one he tried but it just wasn’t happening. This new car has been chosen again ‘in case’ he decides to try again. It’s a pain but it’s his car so it’s important he feels the option is there if he wants to try.

No she won’t be able to . She would like to but it’s not something that would be possible , I would hope in the future but as it stands it’s not and it certainly wouldn’t be within 3 years 😔

i would contact Motability directly just to confirm that you can use the car for what you need it for. You don’t want to take a poll on mums net as gospel.

they have a free phone number or online chat on their website.

If DD would like to try driving but isn’t ready for a provisional driving licence, you could look at a Young Driver lesson. Disabled young people over 17 who won’t be allowed a driving licence can still have a lesson via them.

All this nonsense (plus the restrictions on mileage and the type of vehicle I could have) was why I gave up my Motability vehicle and just used my DLA to buy a WAV instead.
It’s a much cheaper way of doing it too, the amount you are charged for leasing a car is expensive via Motability.

The motability website is really good OP
You can open an account with them once eligible
Advance payment varies- from nothing upwards depending on the car. If lower then you get the difference back in your account. Some take all of your mobility part of PIP; some choices take less.
There's usually a Motability specialist within the dealerships who are quite knowledgeable.

Good luck

"A few have mentioned a blue badge - she isn’t automatically entitled". You should check this. If your DD receives the Higher Mobility PIP payment i.e. scores 12 points, then a Blue Badge is automatically granted. Caveat: the Blue Badge scheme is implemented by the local council, to whom you must apply. (My son has been in receipt of Higher Mobility PIP for 20 years; the cost is £10 for renewal. The BB is extant for the duration of the PIP award.)

Read the thread. This isn’t the case in England.

Yes you can use it as the family car. Motability know that’s what it will be used for. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t use their child/young adult’s car as a regular family car as long as your daughter gets the benefit of the car. My son was at residential college for 3 years, home weekends and holidays. I spoke to motability and she said as long as the use benefits him as well it’s fine to use the car when he’s away. You working benefits her, going shopping is for her benefit etc etc.

The mobility component of pip is further broken down into two parts. My son gets enhanced rate mobility , scores 12 points for the “making and planning a journey” part but zero points for “moving around”. Although he is entitled to a motability car, He isn’t automatically entitled to the badge. You have to score full points in the “moving around” bit to automatically get the badge. My son does have one but I have to apply separately using his prescription as evidence .

You have to score full points in the “moving around” bit to automatically get the badge.

No you don’t. In England, in order to automatically qualify for a blue badge via a PIP award you have to score 8 or more points on the moving around activity OR 10 points exactly under criteria E of the planning and following a journey activity. Slightly different rules in Scotland, Wales and NI, but none of them only automatically give blue badges to those in receipt of full points (i.e. 12 points) in the moving around.

I stand corrected. Given how difficult it is to be awarded Higher Mobility PIP, I was unaware that it could be awarded to anyone who could walk more than the few yards specified.

How does earning a living not benefit her daughter 😂. Motability are absolutely fine with the car being used for work.

I have my wav covered for business, but only if I'm driving it. despite my husband and partner in the business being a named driver, he is not allowed to drive it for any journeys related to the business. So a post office run is done in his car if I'm not feeling well enough to drive.

I should add, the WAV I bought was an ex-Motability vehicle, it has extensive adaptations including the brake and accelerator, electronic indicators, raised floor, electric ramp and a lot of other stuff. It was retired by the scheme and sold to the dealer I bought it from and it saved me a huge amount of money doing it that way, not everyone can get grants for the very complex adaptations we need.

As you just need a basic car and don’t do much mileage you may well find Motability cheaper and the lack of credit checks is a huge advantage.

Can I also say how much I admire you not using blue badge spaces when you don’t need to - I’m often that person swearing under my breath because I can’t find anywhere with enough space to extend the lift out of my van to get in and out because all the spaces are full, so I really appreciate your thoughtfulness!

Yep.my son currently gets HRM due to his severe mental impairment hes on DLA as. He's only 14 but when he transfers to PIP I dont anticipate this changing as he won't be able to plan a journey ,or get on a bus or train by himself ,he needs full 1:1 assistance at all times.

DH was looking at salary sacrifice before we went for motability and a car big enough for 4 adults plus all of Ds2's extra gubbins would have cost about 50% more. He wouldn't have benefited from any tax savings to make it worthwhile, either.

The only thing you can't do as the named driver (rather than as the claimant) is use the car in the course of your work, ie driving between clients, delivering food etc.

You can if you have business insurance added. I have it to drive between different workplaces (standard insurance only covers to head office), you just have to speak to them to have it added.

Any idea on wait times at the moment? Does it depend on makes etc ? No adaptions needed , I’m looking at the Peugeot 208 GT.

Told my daughter that we may , in the future, get a car and showed her some . She likes that and she likes blue or grey ! But her main concern was wether it had DAB radio 🤣