AIBU to feel horrified at the number of Motability vehicles being provided?

[DawnRaiderNight]

Just read this in the Telegraph about what the Americans think of our welfare spending:

“It also shocks Americans to learn that almost one in every five new cars sold in Britain is provided through Motability, the taxpayer-backed car scheme. The equivalent in the United States would be every Chevy, GMC, Buick and Cadillac sold through welfare. Or every Ford”

One of my friend’s daughters, aged 27, who has never worked, has several children with various diagnoses and is a single parent recently received a top of the range car, got to choose the colour and was given a ‘big reveal’ at the garage when she collected it. She has now been given a new four bedroomed detached house, something my own hardworking children could never manage.

Something is very, very wrong in this country.

Yes, and that is fully understood, what is not so easy to understand, is the constant punching down, by people in the situation that you describe. How is attacking disabled people, improving anybody's life, or easing the cost of living for them? Why are they not writing to their MPs in droves, asking them to do something about the ridiculous increases in gas, and electricity, that will be going up again in January? By the way many disabled people are hanging on by their fingernails as well, or inccuring debts, just like anybody else! Disabled people are also disadvantaged when not only trying to secure work, but in the work place also.

I don’t think it is jealousy, I think people are exhausted, worried about making ends meet today and also about the future

Disabled people also have those worries.

Scrapping the Motability scheme would make no difference whatsoever to anyone not on the scheme. It would save the taxpayer no money. It would impact the motor industry negatively, mean job losses and less money going into the economy.

Just as an interesting fact.
One in ten people have a disability. Not all of those people claim benefits. I didn't for twenty years so at current rates that's a saving of £200k! Many people don't claim because they're old school and soldier on. Which brings me to veterans, are those people with limbs blown off not entitled to our 'tax payers' money and gratitude? Many live in proverty and survive (just) on charity support. If you think the forces are well paid you know no one in the military!
We'll be needing a lot more of of these people shortly.

Perhaps if our politicians thought about the environmental damage our dirty water & air freighted foodstuffs (with lesser controls on farming husbandry) that are pumped into our bodies we wouldn't have so many ill people? Add in a health service that is no longer fit for purpose and it isn't going to get better.

There have always been disabled people but they were locked away. That would suit some of the posters on here. Scratch the surface of most families and there will be someone who wasn't able bodied.

Personally I have voted for each main party in my life time and none of them actually sit down a work out a comprehensive funding plan. They can't add up for toffee.They all fight for the same pot and someone has to pay for it. This week is budget week and I've no doubt the pitchforks will be out.

1 in 4 have a disability. 1 in 10 are claiming disability benefits

To appease the utter morons who apparently still live in the 1980s where 'Mercedes' automatically means a high-end expensive car. Merc gave been knocking out cheapish hatchbacks that share god-awful 1.5l rattlebox engines with Renault by the million for well over a decade now, and they are regularly driven by utter scratters, yet the smoothbrained Reform voters among us still think they're synonymous with great wealth and prestige. It's a load of nonsense - it doesn't matter if you can get a Bugatti Tourbillon on Motability, you're only getting £80 per week towards it via benefits and the rest you pay yourself.

"Utter scratters" 😁

There is definitely a failure to grasp that people will continue to receive the mobility part of PIP regardless of whether the Motability scheme exists.

Anyone with a motability car is paying £80 a week for it, which roughly averages out to £346.66 a month.

You can lease an unadapted car for far less than that per month on the open market, so why the envy? https://leasing.com/car-leasing/search/?finance=Personal&upfront=1&sort=monthly_asc

All the people I know who get enhanced rste on mobility on PIP either can't walk or they have such profound learning disabilities they can never live independently. I would never give up my ability to walk to get £80 a week, whether you get to participate in the motability scheme or not.

For the rest of you desperate to lease cars, brand new electric Dacia Spring, straight from the factory, for £191.51 a month. That works out at £44.19 a week, and you don't even have to be disabled as well. https://leasing.com/independent-brokers/easylease-direct/dacia/spring/L0104770000010252436

Or you could spend nearly as much as people on the Motability scheme are paying per month and get a Vauxhall Corsa for £325 a month. leasing.com/car-leasing/search/?finance=Personal&price_from=325&price_to=350&manufacturer=Vauxhall&range=Corsa&page=2

Well thats not true there is a list of cars on mobility most of which have a deposit
My 16 year olds sons mobility car didnt require a deposit it was the only one in the show room that didnt
My son is severley autistic and non verbal he finctions at around 2/3 years of age and will need 1:1 care for the rest of his life i dont think anyone would be jealous of his disabillities.

Oh yes. Just given a 4 bedroom house.
And the top of the range car. Bet she figured out a way of not paying the advance payment too.

Here's the thing, from the outside, its easy to see people's circumstances and judge.

My daughter has a motability car. Shes 18. So drives a brand new car. Doesn't look like theres much wrong with her... really doesnt.

Except her own GP calls her the 18 year old 85 year old. She is awaiting 3 separate surgeries... one for her knees, one for her back, and one for her neck. She has arthritis in all 3 areas and has severe degenerative changes. What people dont see is that her knees just dislocate sometimes, she has pins and needles in her arms, pain
throughout most of her body, and when we went on holiday earlier this year, she managed for the first day- by the second she was being pushed around in a wheelchair.

I think until youve seen someone you love genuinely needing the help, then its easy to judge everyone as a cheeky fucker just taking the piss.

I hope you don't mind me suggesting filgotinib. I started in June for my RA which is genetic and it's amazing.
It's a newish drug.

It is jealousy! Why else come on here, complaining how unfair it is that disabled people get a new car? It really is pathetic - the government has cut down the Motability scheme, so that people now have to pay VAT; they can only have 6 new tyres in 3 years, can only do 30,000 miles in 3 years (paying 25p per mile above that) and pay an admin fee on EU RAC cover. So “normal” people can do a high mileage of 12,000 pa, if they have a long commute; but disabled people have their mileage restricted arbitrarily? Tough luck, if they live as we do on a street, where building works have been going on for two years - we’ve had several nails in our tyres.

What is it to the government? If Motability folded tomorrow, which it could if it wanted to, how would it save the government any money? People would still be entitled to the same PIP as before. Anyway, the law of supply and demand says that if the supply of a fifth of cars coming on to the market at 3 years old, with a service history and relatively low mileage, dried up, the price of second hand cars would go up!

Why not complain about how unfair it is, those working in the City are earning £1 million plus pa; or getting £1 million plus bonuses? People who own several houses in London, a flat in Paris, a house in the French Alps…

There’s £59.2 billion in uncollected tax; but hey ho make a disabled person pay for a 7th burst tyre in 3 years, while a small business can get away with not paying £15,000 in tax in a one off?

It also shows a singular lack of insight to think that “normal” people are struggling with the COL on the NMW (between £24,784 and £26,436 pa) but an unpaid carer, caring 168 hours per week, living on carer’s allowance (£4,495 pa) isn’t?

It is about bullying people, who are perceived as vulnerable and don’t have the wherewithal or time or energy to fight back!

Cars are not "given" through the Motability scheme though. They are leased only and the payments are deducted at source from whatever the relevant benefit is for that person. In some cases, depending on the model of car, you might have to contribute extra. Likewise the house - the rent still has to be paid and the house never becomes an asset in the way a mortgaged house does.

My apologies, I need to issue a correction. I previously said that everyone leasing a Motability car via PIP would be paying £80 a week. It in fact turns out that you can get the very cheapest unadapted motability car, an electric Dacia Spring, for a mere £76 a week! www.motability.co.uk/find-a-vehicle/cars/search-results/dacia-spring/663978

Hmm, that brand sounds familiar... Ah yes, that's the one being advertised on open leasing sites at £191.51 per month/£44.19 per week, that I mentioned earlier.

Go forth everyone and lease a damn car for yourself, instead of ruminating on whether disabled people should use their transport budget for a car they can use all week round, or for a very limited number of taxi trips a week.

Income has got nothing to do with motability .

Have you ever tried getting a wheelchair into a Dacia spring. I have. You can’t.

It is jealousy.

And you don’t think disabled people and their families are exhausted, worried about money and the future?

I honestly think people would be shocked if they could see how many vehicles on the road were motability vehicles. I work in car insurance and we deal with claims all the time where both parties are in motability cars, sometimes even all three cars in a 3 car accident.

IMO we should go back to the old style light blue motability cars - or a modern equivalent of the same.

And how would you get a wheelchair into one of those?

Yes, @DawnRaiderNight - how dare those pesky disabled people be helped to participate fully in society! Maybe some of the people who get a Motability car will be able to go to work as a result - better than them being unemployed, surely!

Would you like to be disabled? I am - I have long covid that has made me incapable of walking more than a few metres - maybe 20, if I use a walker - and for everything else, I use a wheelchair. On a recent trip to Australia, I needed wheelchair assistance at every part of the journey, and, along with the other assistance customers, I was onto the plane ahead of all the other passengers. Some people complain about disabled people getting that ‘perk’ - but I bet they wouldn’t want our disabilities!

Yeh , great idea “ look there goes the disabled person” .
Or possibly much worse language than that.

You wouldn't need to. Everyone who claims pip or dla just just a touch of anxiety. Disability is a myth. We could all get e bikes. Or a skateboard. Or get on the bus with the wheelchair strapped to your back.

Or go back to living victorian asylums ideally. Feed on crackers and dripping like back in the good days before all these things existed.

With respect, that's irrelevant, because I've giving lifestyle tips to misinformed people without disabilities who are labouring under the delusion that only disabled people can lease cars. They need to know about these opportunities, and they also need to realise that Motability runs the scheme to make a profit out of participants.

I'm sure you can't get a wheelchair into a Dacia Spring, but the people chuntering about how unfair it is that the Motability scheme exists don't even know anyone with a wheelchair, never mind routinely have to help a wheelchair user into a car!

The modern equivalent would be big enough to carry a wheelchair.

A bus pass ! I give up.
We’re the same, I wish she could just hop on a bus but not a chance.