To be sick of all the newspaper articles saying lies about DLA and PIP

[elliejjtiny]

To get any DLA or PIP you have to be significantly disabled. To get the higher rate of either part you have to be severely disabled.

A motability car is not free, it's rented. To get one you need to either be unable to walk 50 metres or have a severe learning disability, which is very difficult to get.

It's always happened but since the stuff in the news about changes to PIP it's got worse.

Articles in the newspapers claiming you can get a free car for bed wetting, which just doesn't happen. There will be children like my ds who get DLA because they have a number of problems including bedwetting but nobody gets high rate mobility for bed wetting on its own.

There are other articles about people claiming PIP and DLA for various minor sounding conditions and I am so fed up with it. I know from experience that the newspapers will have talked to people claiming PIP/DLA and twist everything they say to make them sound like a scrounger.

All these articles are giving off the message that anyone with any minor disability can claim loads of benefits.

The purpose of the motability scheme is not to allow less well off people purchase cars they otherwise couldn’t afford.

I suppose you think that they should all be driving round in the old three wheeler cars!

The last disability-bashing thread had people suggesting exactly this.

"Having access to a basic car that is adapted to your needs is one thing, getting a BMW X2, a Mini Cooper, a Mazda CX5 etc."

We pay £3000 on top so our adult son can have a basic car suitable to meet his needs - wheelchair, carers etc.

Posts like this don’t really help. PIP is meant to help with essential costs, not be spending money for ‘nice things’.

There are no stipulations as to what people spend their PIP on, nor should there be.

Not what I said.

The purpose of PIP is to help with the extra costs of being disabled.

Asking ‘why shouldn’t we have nice things’ is unlikely to help convince anyone there’s no need to change anything about the system.

My adult son, virtually deaf, autistic, no spatial awareness so can never drive, can’t cope to cook, dispraxic, communication problems etc recently applied for PiP to supplement his meagre wage doing a boring repetitive job which he’s held down for years. He scored 2 points which was nowhere near enough to even think about appealing. People who can through the PiP interview must be in a very bad way!

PIP and DLA are supposed to level the playing field and mean that people with disabilities can afford to lead life without having some of the financial stresses that disability brings.

70 per cent of what is printed is nowhere near the truth as an ex dwp person retired it's not true . Most of the new thoughts about disability are yet to go through parliament as well . Will not begin untill 2026 . As for loo roll never stocked up just get what one needed

I'm guessing you have no direct experience of mobility issues and zero knowledge of the myriad things that disabled people need.

Just by the way, you do know that Motability is run as a profitable business that the government now doesn't have to fund?

Just btw how do you feel about taxpayers' money having to subsidise British Steel or possibly Thames Water that most of us won't benefit from. There's shed loads of stuff that the government fund, or is it easier just to have a go at a minority group whose choices are limited.

@AgnesX
Exactly!
Completely ignorant and clueless views!

That is what this whole thread and debate is about. There aren't any stipulations at the moment but is it appropriate for state money to fund luxuries? If someone wants to buy a designer handbag or expensive car with state money then they at liberty to do so at the moment. Lots of people disagree with this.

To the DWP person - how does it work when someone says they are regularly suicidal? I don't claim for mental health issues so don't know how it works but are claims where somebody reports this level of distress often unsuccessful if they don't have evidence of specialist mental health input? It would seem that you might risk a lot of suicides just because people didn't have enough evidence but then I know there have been a lot of suicides over welfare cuts.

You clearly have no idea how the mobility scheme works, I suggest you read up on it before spouting more nonsense.

I have just recently qualified Pip (that will piss you off I'm sure) including the enhanced mobility part of it.

I'm of an age where you bought cars and didn't lease cars. I could sell my car and use that as a deposit for a mobility car of a highest spec than the mobility allowance would pay for, it would be brand-new, it would be adapted to my new needs, it would be newer and more reliable. However. I'm not choosing to sell my asset to do this. I think younger people who have a different approach to having a car and are happy to lease them would be more open to it.

there are a lot of aspects I need to look into yet, I only had my strokes a couple of months ago, so I'm waiting to see a bit longer term what my adaptations are going to need to be, also I'm avoiding being checked out yet in case they say they cannot do enough or suitable adaptations to a car to make it safe for me to drive. I have been driving 40 years and don't live somewhere with brilliant public transport like London. At this stage I'm lucky enough to be getting lifts and some local help with the Transport scheme to get me back-and-forth to hospital. (it's a volunteer based scheme where you just pay the driver a certain amount towards their petrol and upkeep, so it's not free but it is cheaper than a taxi)

Until I know what adaptations I need, I have no idea whether they can be accommodated or not and which if any cars can be adapted.

I may end up having to accept a mobility scheme CAR to lease if it's the only way I can drive again

But you know, I feel so lucky to be in this position🙄🙄

Out of the kindness of my heart, I would gladly do a deal with you, you have the disability I have been left with after the stroke and you can have my mobility allowance/Car

deal??

No, you say, what a surprise.

Levelling the playing field with who though? Lots of able bodied people can't afford to run a car, let alone a luxury one.

I have a Qashqai on Motability, not the top spec, but not the most basic either. I paid the £2000 up front payment partly through a new car grant scheme by Motability and partly through money that I had saved (because who knew some disabled people could save!). This money I earned through working, a wage that I also pay taxes on.
I object to many things being paid for by my taxes, but I can’t imagine being such a cunt that I would deny the poorest and most vulnerable in society, just because the government have made them their target. I also can’t imagine lying about fictional mega-wealthy disabled people driving around in their free top spec BMWs just because they have a wart on their arse, but there’s plenty of evidence of that on this thread. Sigh.

🤣🤣did she bollocks

If you are going to lease a luxury car
You will have to put down a significsnt deposit.

Level the playing field with someone with a comparable income but no disability. So a disabled person who had worked their way up the ladder to be able to afford a better lifestyle would not lose that lifestyle on account of being disabled. Obviously a disabled person on a low wage with limited wealth and savings would be on a level playing field as someone else on the same low wage. It's so work and achievement are still rewarded when they're undertaken disability isn't a huge financial punishment.

I hate it too and it is creating such division.
The people who have not been in the benefits system have no idea, and they just make assumptions. Online newspaper articles saying things like "you can claim PIP if you have one of these health condition" do not help either.
So many threads here about benefits now and all the same tired old tropes coming out too.
I am very scared about the proposed changes to benefits, but you can't even say that on here as you get accused of emotional blackmail. Some posters seem even pleased that disabled people will be starving and facing bailiffs as they wont be afford to live.

It's a cunning plan to poison the publics mind, solidify in their minds that benefits are too generous, too easy to get, that fraud rates are super high such that altering how you claim and who can claim is justified.

Then of course, anyone who should be in receipt of disability benefits who no longer qualifies can be branded a liar/cheat very easily... and there is no outcry that thousands of disabled people have been left without support.

Motability is a leasing company for disabled people - it is also a charity - but it is not funded by taxpayers. Motability makes profits and it is reasonable to assume that it pays taxes on those profits.

Motability's business model is that for most users of the scheme, it provides brand new cars which are used for 3 years and then returned to Motability and resold. For the term of the lease, most users surrender the mobility component of their PIP award.

There may be some cheaper cars that may be leased for less than the full allowance, but none of the cars I have ever looked at fall in to this category. This is my 3rd car that I have leased.

When applicants decide to use a Motability car, there is a list of cars to choose from and a clear indication of both the cost of the car and the upfront cost. Yes, users of the scheme will have to pay a lump non-refundable sum when they have a car, if it is bigger than a basic one. For example, I currently lease a biggish automatic saloon car because I need its height to be able to get in and out of it and I have difficulties driving a manual car. In addition to all my PIP mobility component, I have paid £1500 for the privilege of having the use of it (for 3 years, remember) and when it is due for renewal, I will have to find a similar sum for another car. I did look at a electric car which would have cost £9000 upfront - luxury cars cost even more.

Motability leases are only 'free', in that a user pays for the lease out of the Mobility component of PIP or DLA - which incidentally, is deducted at source.

Briefly, 2 other points. Firstly, only people in receipt of Higher rate Mobility component are permitted to use the scheme (so not every PIP /DLA claimant is entitled to a car) and secondly, in the event of the user losing their entitlement to Higher rate Mobility (or dying), the car is surrendered immediately.

Motability cars can be quite expensive and it is a choice to lease from them. Not everyone who is eligible for one can afford to use the scheme.

As for claiming PIP fraudulently, I had to go to Tribunal to receive my original DLA award, and when I was eventually assessed for PIP (over the telephone), the assessor made many false inferences from my responses (she says that she plays the organ at church, so must be able to walk the required distance) which I had to refute line by line - a very daunting task - but I was re-awarded on appeal. I would have gone to Tribunal again, because that is where the judgement is made by a doctor (and others).

Yes, I understand that is the current way that PIP is meant to work but I think there are huge moral questions to be asked about how far this should go when we are making cuts in other areas. Does a billionaire need to claim PIP because they have a disability? When can we ask someone to carry some of the financial burden of their own disabilities themselves?

Personally I think that we are not in position to level the playing field in a way you suggest for everyone with a disability. We simply can't afford it and there is little public appetite to subsidise wealthy people, disabled or not.

I don’t know what the answer is. When I think of the people I know on pip.. yes they have disabilities but they end up with far more money than most working people and spend on it on their hoarding, holidays, luxury items. It should be means tested.