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.

Unless there is something unique you require it still doesn't need to be designer brand. Perhaps you should spend a bit more time being grateful for living in a country with a welfare state rather than having a tantrum about a using a normal brand not designer brand. Nobody is forcing you into a Robin Reliant or Fred Flintstones car!

Not at all bitter. I'd like all disabled people to be supported as much as they need but piss-takers wind me up. They are the ones taking from those who genuinely need help! The women I spoke of's kids openly boast about what they're doing. I take it you're fine with fully employed people, with no disabilities in their 40s scamming cars at public expense?

People really dont understand how Motobility works, no-one is getting a "free" Merc. It is like saying no-one who gets Universal Credit should be allowed to buy an iphone

I’m not aware of any own brand cars…

Well apparently ‘money to offset some of the additional costs of living with a disability’ is too difficult for you to understand so…

These are friends of my MIL's so no I won't be reporting them in case it is the old ladies who get into trouble rather than their scamming offspring!

Because PIP is not means tested, its unclear what point you are trying to make.

I mean, if you are going to restrict how non means tested benefits are spent surly means tested ones should be even more tightly controlled Should we limit Universal Credit recipients to Lidl, Aldi, Asda and Tesco only? That those with children an in receipt of child benefit should not be allowed to buy junk food? Both easily managed by introducing a Digital ID required for all purchases, linked to government databases ;)

Priceless

Just to add to @Vinvertebrate s post to obtain a disabled person's railcard you need to be in receipt of a disability benefit. To access travel assist (ramps/ disabled seats) on trains you need the rail card. It's the only way you can ensure that an able bodied arse isn't taking up these seats. It's a condition of carriage.
And the cards aren't free!

@LupaMoonhowl

What YOU don’t understand is that the benefits are not means-tested so you can be as sad about that as you wish but since 1991 DLA has not been means tested.
Anything the recipient does with that benefit money is up to them.
Just like those in receipt of universal credit or child benefit or any other benefit- once you qualify you can spend it as you want.
Buy a crack pipe on universal credit or PIP. ..
lease a vehicle from Joe Bloggs with PIP money, or lease via Motability.
The recipients’ choice.. not the government’s.
Does the government tell anyone else or any other charity what to do..?

Yours is such a different situation though.

These old ladies 40 something children have cars that they keep full time at their own houses and drive to work in and only take their mums out for maybe 2 hours once a week shopping. They don't live with their mothers. The laugh and boast about how clever they are. It is sickening.

My car is an ex motability, I bought it 4 years old with very low mileage (not luxury but hybrid)

do these cars support the second hand market long term? If people choose a wide variety of different motability options does that better reflect public demand for second hand cars?

This. Otherwise what difference does it make?

If you want a BMW and can afford it then you lease one and take the PIP money separately and just put it towards that.

Won't that option still exist to anyone who wants to do it this way?

Distinct lack of ambition there @Tryingtokeepgoing Why limit it to benefit claimants. Why not also everyone working in the public sector. Paid for with our taxes.

With all due respect, that really isnt the point. DLA and PIP may be claimed irrespective of income. They are intended to cover the unavoidable costs of having a disability, not only for people on the bones of their arse.

If you feel strongly that no means tested benefits should exist, then by all means state a coherent case and campaign for that across the piste. Bearing in mind that those benefits include attendance allowance, JSA and the state pension (and child benefit until quite recently). Otherwise, it just looks as though you’ve been offered an opportunity to punch down specifically on disabled people, and you can’t resist taking it.

There seems to be a lot of people on here who think disabled people are getting something for nothing so feel hard done by because they can't. There's also an awful lot of people who have never considered that not all disabled people are equal, and there are many different levels of need when it comes to transport.

I "just" need a car of a certain height for ease of getting in & out, a certain level of seat support, sufficient room for stretches while in the car, and an automatic gearbox. My friend needs a car which has hand controls & room for her wheelchair etc, plus a few other adjustments. There's no way either of us could manage with something like a Micra let alone those 3 wheeler things some people seem fond of bringing back, but equally our needs are very different indeed.

A safe, reliable car is even more essential to a disabled person than it is to an able bodied person; public transport can be difficult if not impossible and it would cost me a fortune to even get to the station or bus stop every day even if I could physically cope with the seating let alone if there are any changes involved. Any kind of breakdown is so much worse if you're also disabled, not just an inconvenience as it would be for able bodied people.

I work full time, I also pay taxes (which some on here seem to forget). I need to work to eat & keep a roof over my head. I get zero benefits apart from my PIP. Doesn't mean I'm going to complain that someone else gets other benefits I don't, and if I could afford it I would love to have a decent car because a car that's comfortable & good to drive would go a very little way towards all the other disadvantages I have from my disability. I don't feel "hard done by" because I don't qualify for help towards my housing, or allowances towards the children I don't have. I don't whinge about somebody getting higher level PIP, when I don't because I'm about 2 points short on their scale, or DLA which I don't get because I can just about cope with a bit of help from family.

its not free. Its calculated into the motability payment and will affect the up front payment.....additionally the "lost VAT" theory assumes that if those luxury cars are not leased by motability users, they would be bought by other people who would not otherwise have bought them.

OK that's a fair point, I was just pointing out that the scheme is "broken" in other ways.

I have an adult daughter with disabilities and people scamming money (and then boasting about it!) that is then removed from the pot available for the genuinely disabled and in need of help boils my piss!

that is about fraud, not about disadvantaging legitimate claimants

What a small, spiteful country we have become.

Glad this entertains you.

not all of us.....

This

There is a distinction to be made here.

pip can be awarded for care or mobility needs. Only an award of the highest need for mobility will entitle you to access motability.

there will be a lot of people on pip who are not eligible for motability and do not have a motability car.

we don’t know how many of those eligible for motability work. That data isn’t available (mostly because the Dwp do collect a lot of data on pip but it’s collected at the application point and they don’t keep ringing people up to ask if they are in work).

Good analogy!