Luxury cars removed from the motability scheme

[AutumnLeavesandKnittedJumpers]

https://news.sky.com/story/luxury-cars-removed-from-motability-scheme-ahead-of-budget-13475029

too little too late. As a full time worker I can’t afford to run a car, let alone a luxury car. Motability should be a standard car - available in automatic and manual, an option for wheelchair users, and that’s it.

I imagine it’ll go up? It’s a crazy thing it was ever allowed in the first place

So if a person due to a physical disability receives pip but has a job with a high salary why shouldn't they have a luxury car that they pay the difference on?

So they can be millionaires and claim and still have a car on the scheme

No one is saying disabled people can't buy luxury cars!

It doesn't matter.
Some of you are trying to make it sound like the choice it's between a Flintstone's car and a BMW.
It's not at all.

Most of us that have savings but not that much dont go and lease a BMW. We lease a Nissan Qhasqai and keep the savings for emergencies. So it's nothing to do with disabilities, is common sense.

The cost to the tax payer is the same irrespective of the luxury of the car.

Some people may need a bigger/better car because:

• they have more / larger equipment
• they have a larger family
• their disability or height makes this the best car for them

I suspect this is a case of wanting to be seen to be doing something even if it doesn't make sense.

A quick google showed me that you can lease a Yaris for £241 a month so your mums £500 must be down to some choices or options.

disabled people come from all income brackets. If you can afford the down payment for a bmw then why not have one. At the end of the motability lease the cars get sold on for absolute top dollar. There are no discounts for the leaseholder to buy them back at a discount.

Our motability car needs to take 5 adults. That’s going to be very uncomfortable in a Yaris!

Why? Should all disabled people, regardless of wealth be forced to drive a cheap car if they can afford better?

It really is a storm in a teacup. A luxury car costs the taxpayer EXACTLY THE SAME AMOUNT as a cheap car. If a disabled person wants to put their OWN money towards upgrading to a better model it’s no skin off the taxpayer’s nose.

It isn’t the fault of disabled people that your mum chose to take out a deal that was extremely poor value for money, the dealers certainly saw her coming.

Yes, the luxury cars may have a higher upfront payment, but they are heavily subsidised. They are zero rated for VAT and that saving is passed on to the customer. I don’t think anyone is arguing that the scheme should be scrapped altogether, but it’s ludicrous that luxury cars can be bought at a large cost to the taxpayer.

There is also abuse of the system. I was in a luxury brand dealership recently and a lady was in there telling them that the car was hers, that she used it as her own, but technically it was her mum’s on the Motability scheme.

It needed to be done.

I’m disabled and use a wheelchair.

I disagree entirely. They don’t getting the money because they are ‘poor’ financially, they are getting it because they are disabled are at a major disadvantage compared to a non disabled person. It’s not about earnings or savings.

The recipients/users of these vehicles pay for them though....?

Motability says it’s up to about 50% cheaper than leasing, like for like. Also no Vehicle Excise Duty, and often better VAT and IPT treatment too.

Is that not the case?

https://www.motability.co.uk/whats-available/cars/pricing-spotlight/

There was a lady on the radio a few weeks ago discussing this. She was a professional lady working hard in her career until in her 40’s she lost one leg due to sepsis then another due to a different infection. She said she’d always been a motor head and loved cars/ motorbikes. Quite rightly she gets PIP but she said that given how much she’d already lost in her life she wanted a nice car and to feel a semblance of her ‘normal’ life. The car obviously needed to be heavily adapted. She paid the down payment herself. It’s no extra cost to the tax payer if in the end she had a BMW or a ford focus.

Of course they should be removed. Just as they have made British made cars more attractive

So??

…… So they don’t get DLA because they are financially poor, this will blow your mind, even someone with a salary of £100,000 could still claim.
ohh how awful that disabled people can have some savings!!

If you’re born with no legs your life will be much more difficult than the average person. I bet you wouldn’t swap!

This is coming back round to what benefits should be means tested and which shouldn't.

By not means testing some richer people get money they maybe don't 'need'.
But means testing is expensive and inevitably some people who do need the money end up missing out for various reasons.

If you want to pick on benefits to reduce, maybe look at Attendance Allowance. You could means test that at least by saying anyone who pays higher rate tax loses it.

Maybe we should bring back those ugly little old blue cars for disabled people - and they can be truly grateful for them.

It's almost certainly their own fault that they've lost (or been born without) some basic abilities that 'nice normal' people take for granted - and people 'like that' surely shouldn't be having families or friends (or even carers) with whom they want/need to travel, as these are not things that would fit in with 'the disabled culture'.

They certainly shouldn't expect to have any consumer choices as to how to spend their own money like 'normal' people do - maybe they should have thought about that before they decided to become disabled........

As a full time worker I can’t afford to run a car, let alone a luxury car

What has being a ‘full time worker’ got to do with anything?
Are you under the impression that all disabled people on PIP aren’t also working?

Many people are entirely missing the point which is that some (many?) people believe that benefits are a safety net to help the least well off in society and that if someone can afford say £500 a month on a car then they don’t need the subsidy in the first place and it would be better directed towards those in greater need. Some people are determined to see this as an attack on disabled people though.

Do you not get a car as a wheelchair user?

Some disabled people work, in professional high paying roles. Ffs, when I was studying my masters one of our lecturers had cerebral palsy and used a wheelchair. He had a phd in his subject but he’s not allowed a choice in the (heavily adapted) car he drives because he’s also disabled.

Motability ISNT subsidised by the government, it uses pip payments but it is an entirely separate entity (comprising of a charity and a limited company)

Yes, but still less than the cost if they were outside the motability scheme due to the tax breaks and govt incentives, i.e. VAT free etc.

The way the scheme is funded relies on being able to sell on the car for a good price at the end of the three years to find purchase of next lot of cars. Also, motabil have to buy a certain amount of electric cars to satisfy government targets.
What should be looked at is employers being more keen to employ disabled people so more can work and don't need means tested benefits.