Motability cars - should they be UK made?

[Pandersmum]

Motability cars are currently in the news with suggestions VAT will be added. I realise they are a lifetime to some and a perk to others. They are a huge annual cost to the tax payer.

AIBU to think that all motability car choice should be limited to those manufactured in the UK? This would support British manufacturing worker jobs and increase UK business tax revenue whilst still providing cars for those who need them?

Same for adults. My sister has just had to get one for her and the first thing her husband (the driver) checked before doing it was if it was ok to use the car for school runs and day to day thing and it was

No - I'm not aware that they'd do anything anyway.
One admitted they don't need PIP anymore since surgery but its an easy way to coast into retirement and they aren't up for review until after state pension age.
The other claims mental health problems but only seems to have a problem with working. She prefers to be left alone on PIP and ESA while enjoying a packed social life and gets quite narked if we can't meet her for coffee, shopping, a walk in the park etc because we have to work

It's not an out of work benefit
Again do you think mental health professionals are thick?

My motability car cost me £8000 up front, plus about £300 every month which comes straight from my PIP. The original lease agreement is for three years, but you can extend it to five years if you have had to pay for extensive modifications. I’m very much hoping my modifications will qualify because when this lease runs out I’m looking at having to find another £8000. This is a vehicle that has a wheelchair hoist in the boot and modified steering to enable me to drive it.

My current wheelchair is 15 years old, and they no longer make tyres for it so I’m trundling round on bald tyres hoping they don’t burst because when they do I will have to replace the chair. It cost about £6,000 when I bought it, to get something that can compare will cost me over £10,000. I have a cheaper indoor chair that cost £2,600 about five years ago that I can use for work and round a shopping centre if I know it’s flat and smooth, but if I can’t afford to replace my big chair when the tyres go I will no longer be able to walk my dog.

My disability has cost me tens of thousands of pounds. No the government don’t pay. They give you a little bit of help, but in order to be a functioning member of society I have to find the money myself. I’m extremely lucky in that my parents are able to help me and my husband is a high earner. Left to the government I would be unable to hold down a job and would end up stuck on incapacity benefit, presumably being pressured to get a job which I can’t do without the equipment they won’t pay for. As it is, me working barely covers the cost of the support I need to be able to work, but I’d rather have a life.

So no, it is not a perk, it is not a free car, it is a bit of help to try to alleviate the burden of the cost of disability. It does make a dent in the cost, but you’re extremely naive if you think it covers all of it. I am significantly worse off due to my disability.

To everyone who thinks I should be restricted to an even narrower pool of cars that are even less likely to meet my needs, to put it bluntly, fuck off!!! 🤬🤬🤬

Maybe you missed my previous post where I explained this to you.

If you work, you are benefiting your disabled family member by providing an income.

If you are ill, you benefit your disabled family member by driving the car to get the prescription to get better.

I can drive the car with my dogs to the park to walk them because my daughter benefits from having dogs. I can drive to the gym because it benefits her if I am healthy. I can drive to the shops to buy clothes or to a restaurant to have lunch with friends because it benefits her that my mental health is good.

My husband recently started a new job which means he needs to use the car and we phoned up and got business use added to the basic motability insurance. It means our daughter will continue to have a roof over her head.

I use the car during the day to see my friends, go shopping etc. Taking care of myself and my mental and physical health is beneficial to my son; whose car it is. It would be ridiculous to change cars. What am I supposed to do? Drive him to his day centre then come home, change cars, do my stuff, come home again, change cars and then go pick him up. A whole other car with its related expenses. Don't you think that would be ridiculous?

Do you mean vehicle tax exemption? That can apply to privately owned cars as well as Motability cars if the registered keeper meets the criteria. Do you think that means no-one else would be allowed to use a privately owned vehicle if the registered keeper is exempt from vehicle tax?

You don't know what you are talking about.

People aren't getting free cars of any worth though. They are allowed to put some of their mobility allowance towards leasing the car. To qualify for that allowance you have to prove you are severely disabled. If leasing the car costs more than the allowance people have to supplement the cost with their own money. It's not the case right now that Andy from little Britain can point at a Jaguar and say "want that one" and get it free.

They have a choice of car but if the choice is more expensive they pay the difference themselves. What's changing is removing the VAT exemption. It's a way of raising extra tax revenue but might make it harder for people to afford the cars upfront. So I feel conflicted. But the reason they have to go for VAT exemption is because there isn't some big pot of people frivolously claiming that they can make easy savings from.

Most British made cars are on the expensive end anyway. So either a lot of people.would be priced out by that requirement or you would need to raise the benefit to allow people to lease Jaguars and Land rovers. Which would likely not go down well.

No but its hard to prove those with mental health problems are lying.

Then it's changed because the things you mention weren't allowed before.
Are you checking with mobility or DVLA as they have different ideas on the rules.

Mobility cars are free to the recipient unless they want to pay extra for a different car. My friend who has one can't afford extra so has a basic model.
If you don't pay for it yourself it is free to you. I am paying tax and have been for years so I am contributing towards that car.
I know it reduces PIP but I am finding that as well

It's not really I used to be a mental health nurse and mental health issues are a very broad spectrum and don't just consist of anxiety and depression.

It can, in the vast majority of cases, be used as the family car, yes.

When do you think these things were not allowed ?
Do you not think it's a bit arrogant to tell people who have motability cars and know how they are allowed to use them they are wrong based on one person you know ,who doesn't seem to understand the rules themselves?

There are several threads on MSE regarding this and mobility giving out contradictory advice to DVLA rules.
How many with mobility vehicles check with DVLA

You can't just make your own rules up.

"But it does say it has to be for the benefit of the disabled person.
How is a named driver visiting her friends in the car benefiting the disabled person.

The carer of the disabled person is entitled to respite from their role As long as the car is not required by the disabled person at that time, it is fine.

Have a look on the website at how many are available without paying extra. Especially if you need a WAV.

The vast majority of people have little choice but to pay extra so it isn't free at all.

"How many with mobility vehicles check with DVLA"

How about you check with the DVLA.

I didn't say you could just that motorbility don't always give the right advice.
Motorbility told my friend she could commute in the car DVLA said not because the road tax exemption is not for her.
I'll get her to check again with both and see if it's changed.
Has anyone on this thread claiming checked with DVLA?(although maybe its different when claiming for a child)

Friend did and was told differently to what many on here are saying.
No one has said they've checked with DVLA.
It's to do with vehicle tax. Disabled drivers are exempt not the mobility vehicle.
Able bodied people going about there own business are not tax exempt even when using a mobility vehicle.

"Motorbility told my friend she could commute in the car DVLA said not because the road tax exemption is not for her.
I'll get her to check again with both and see if it's changed."

If some one gets gets high rate mobility but doesn't have a motability car then to claim road tax exemption there are strict rules about their car can be used. This doesn't apply if the car is a motability car.

And what about able bodied people who are driving the privately owned family car, which is tax exempt because the registered keeper is disabled? Hmm?

One could be forgiven for thinking you are are on a wind up mission, tbh.

As you've said though, it's going to be different with disabled children because they can't be the drivers.

Unless I want to pay extra? Are you kidding me? Having a vehicle big enough to transport my wheelchair is not a want it’s a need, I have to pay extra! I have to pay extra to have the steering modified too. You think being able to physically drive the car is just a want too? Yes I could have a car for just the £300 mobility component of PIP. It would sit on the drive unused because I would by physically unable to drive it, and even if I could drive it I’d not be able to do much when I got wherever I was going because I wouldn’t have my wheelchair with me. Me and my frivolous “wants” 🙄