To think this is a fair change to the Motability scheme...

[BusyBumbling]

BBC News - 'Premium' cars like BMW and Mercedes cut from Motability scheme
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9znkxq47xo

It's still supporting disabled people with the cost of owning a car whilst also supporting the British car industry. I think public opinion has been listened to on both sides and this seems very sensible.
It may also reduce some of the costs of the grants paid from the scheme which were helping fund the upfront cost for premium cars for poorer claimants.

OK, so take away their PIP and they will be stuck at a home and not see anyone. I am not sure how you think that would benefit anyone at all.
Anxiety is very often co-morbid with other MH conditions, and also things like autism. I will just tell the autistic people I see to take more responsibility, yes?
The groups they attend are a life line for them.
Be grateful you don't need something like that to feel part of something.

Both are totally gutless. Would rather lie through their teeth that all is rosy than face the truth that it isn’t. The Labour rebel MPs are those doing the most damage by insisting in living in lala land.

The triple lock is massively damaging and needs to be halted, but neither have the guts to do this.

The basic rate of tax in this country is laughably low but neither have the guts to change this.

Higher rate tax payers have been squeezed until the pips squeak, and they’re just not having it anymore. Can’t be bothered to work longer hours if they’re going to hit the 62% marginal rate, so they don’t and the whole country loses. So many young professionals are leaving - engineers, doctors, biomedical researchers. People who will be paying good taxes going forward otherwise. They’re leaving because the social contract is broken. They’re not working here to see their taxes fund pip payments for anxiety and unaffordable pension increases that they’re have no hope of seeing themselves. They’re reasonable people. They don’t mind funding a refugee for a few years while war rages in their home country as long as they go back afterwards and don’t claim benefits. They’re fine with paying disability for a carpet fitter in their 60s waiting on a knee replacement. But endless people wanting money to be ‘carers’ for those with mild mental health conditions is nonsense.

Tomorrow will be a shit show, Reform will win the next election and then the country will be truly sunk.

If a car costs £25k to lease over 5 years it still costs the government £5k. It costs the car lesser the other £20k.

In this scenario though, why should the Government be paying anything?

But we give them money to attend these things as a first port of call rather than a last port of call. People aren’t given the change to use their initiative. Instead they are infantilised and made dependent.

"It’s not the ‘passing the test’ that’s the issue, it’s just that anxiety shouldn’t be a factor that gets you benefits at all. You wonder how we’d cope if ww2 was these days!"

Anxiety can mean you receive continuing healthcare funding and require multiple carers to keep you safe.

And @DogsAreNicethe answer is they are all economically incompetent especially over recent decades. All are self-interested so tell the electorate what they want to hear because our economically illiterate population prefers to vote for promises of undeliverable cake than a sensible plan that would actually improve things, so we get one ideological and incompetent Government after another. If what is mooted for the budget is actually accurate then Labour seem to be trying very hard to claim the crown for the most economically incompetent Government yet. The Conservatives were the most dire they have ever been over the last decade. Brexit was obvious madness and it was a categorical fact it would make everyone far poorer. People said they didn’t care! When you’re dealing with that level of stupidity amongst the electorate of course you get similarly stupid politicians. Then Labour come in and pretty much every measure they’ve taken to date will lower living standards further by strangling productivity and growth and refusing to redirect money to the productive parts of the economy. Nothing will change until that happens. And now we are told that a significant proportion of the electorate - not happy with the doom loop they’ve caused by voting for the Conservatives’ Brexit and then the current bunch of utter idiots - want to compound this by voting for Farage! If the rest of us didn’t have to live with the economic consequences of this lunacy then it would be comical.

What should be the first port of call?
Because the groups I am on about are people attending to drink tea, play bingo and do basic crafts. None of them work or will be able to unless employers drastically change their tune about employing ND people.

I think its awful, as people have already stated it doesn't reduce the cost to the tax payer at all, it just panders to the ignorant who think disabled people are benefit scroungers. People should be able to get a car that is suitable for their needs and within their budget, their budget shouldn't be anyone's business. Disabled people are adults who can balance their budgets like anyone else, we don't tell people how to spend UC or child benefit. This policy is for optics only, to appease the right wing ableists.

See posts above. Equality, decency, higher overall tax revenue, lower welfare and social care and healthcare costs, means testing being cost-prohibitive by orders of magnitude, and it’s really none of the Government’s business what people choose to spend their money on is it?

Some cars have different features like assisted parking or seats adjustable in specific ways or paddle gear controls or auto-defrost so they don’t have to scrape ice off windscreens etc which aren’t available on cheaper cars but are necessary for someone disabled. That is an example of why choice was provided so people could choose a car that suited their specific needs and comfort best, provided they were prepared to pay any additional cost themselves. It’s really nobody else’s business at all.

Another example is that a large proportion of people using the scheme will be parents with a severely disabled child. Adapting the car for the child privately would be cost-prohibitive but Motability can do it relatively cheaply due to economies of scale. Why should these parents then be told that they are only allowed to choose a cheap and basic car rather than pay more for a nicer one, just as they would have done if they did not have a disabled child? What’s your problem with people spending their own money on what they want to spend it on? Why do you care when them paying more has no more effect on you than it would if they leased the car privately? The disability benefits are paid to them either way. It’s pure spite.

I don't mean to be rude but I would find it quite alarming if you were allowed to drive if those features of a car were absolutely essential to you. What if it failed when you were driving and you weren't able to stay in your lane properly or do an emergency stop?

Absolutely. Some of the comments on this thread are disgusting and I hope that some MPs have the decency to call out in Parliament this disgusting demonising of disabled people. Apparently trying to take educational provision away from disabled children wasn’t sufficient, more prejudice was required. It’s disgraceful.

They're essential because I'm epileptic. If I get to 12 months seizure free, legally I can drive again - that doesn't mean I'll never have another seizure, so having those features on a car vastly reduces the risk of death or serious injury to myself and others in the event of a breakthrough seizure.

If the stars aligned in such a way that a reliable system failed at the exact same time as I had my first seizure in at least 12 months, the universe is probably telling me it's my time to go.

Surely the contribution in the form of down payment for a particular car, is no different than paying “extra” on top of your nursery vouchers if you qualify for those?

No it’s bloody well not. All the adaptations I’ve had, I’ve paid for on top of any advanced payment. Then when the 3 years are up, I have to pay out for a othe advanced payment and another set of adaptations

Fair enough thanks for explaining

My apologies. My point was that they are not given to you nor funded by the tax payer.

R.e. PIP I fully feel if someone has a physical disability, chronic pain, or a degenerative disease they are fully deserving of it and need enough so they can meet their medical bills.

If they are ID and cannot understand what's happening around them they need full government support.

But I personally how far can MH excuses go? I'm willing to be challenged on this. People too anxious and scared to use public transport, at some point they have to get over it, learn to interact with real people and behave in the real world.

Or people who "wish they could work but can't die to autism" but have time to go complain about everyone and everything under the sun on MN.

All accurate except disability benefits are broadly in line with the levels they have been at since the 1970s as a proportion of GDP and are low by international standards. The reason the UK economy is screwed is that nearly 50% of public spending and rising is being spent on 15% of the population (over 65s) who are also the wealthiest cohort in society by far and a large proportion of them should be funding their own retirements without welfare. This largesse - far exceeding anything paid to disabled people, which incidentally DOES actually improve the fiscal position unlike the spending on pensioners - is unaffordable and is starving productive parts of the economy of cash, such as education, infrastructure and investment in industrial strategy.

All of this nonsense about asylum seekers/ disabled people is an irrelevancy in comparison and the UK’s doom loop of falling living standards will continue until a significant proportion of public spending is redirected from the old to the areas listed above which would generate rising productivity and growth. If you were an economist you’d know that these attacks on disability benefits are an irrelevant distraction in comparison.

But what do you want to do with those people? If they can't work because they can't use public transport then they aren't going to be earning and contributing to society without a car. Or are you saying you think they are lying?

Better to be claiming PIP and working, than claiming benefits and not working.

How ridiculous. You CHOOSE to have a child. Nobody chooses to have a disability.

This is spot on, no one is telling pensioners what cars they can drive and how they should be spending their benefits.

Apology accepted. 💐

What is "a MH excuse"? Do you think that no one should be on benefits due to MH issues?
If you are scared to use a bus, then see a GP and see what help you get. It is fuck all. Maybe put on a year long waiting list for CBT, which is just a sticking plaster to make NHS treatments figures look good.

Posting on MN does not mean someone can hold down a job. Have a look at the stats regarding the amount of autistic people in paid work. Do you think it is because they don't want to work? I know many who have tried to volunteer and were "sacked" because no one wants customer facing people who wont make eye contact and who are really blunt about things. Customers complain and you lose business.

Are there going to be the same rules for car hires by MPs or similar people highly paid for by taxpayers who can also get car hires paid for by tax payers?

If this is largely about the optics as many have said, it would be nice optics for some of these sacrifices needed to make the budget work at least potentially impact MPs, even just a little bit.

Here we go - the politics of envy. Take my PIP, by all means, but you have to take my multiple sclerosis and cardiomyopathy too. Still wondering why I get higher rate mobility? It's a genuine puzzle, but I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that I can't fucking walk.