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.

Some idiots on here really need to experience problems like your dh before they shoot their mouths off on here. They'd have a different view point then.

If we were in a Utopia where everyone could have anything they desire and cost no object, yes have your Mercedes van for jaunts.
We aren’t.
If you can’t pay for that - the reality is that you can’t expect someobe else to
to pay it for you.

I have a child so it's DLA in my case but yep, it is an absolute farce to claim it.

So you would rather an ambulance was out of action for one day a month, and he would still receive the exact same amount of PIP. So you actually want him to receive more funding.

Since when is a hospital appointment a jaunt?

When we hadn’t long been together and he was re-applying I was like ‘how hard can it be’ I was never as brave, or stupid ever again!

Well obviously again ‘it’s not fair’ !!!! Why are the disabled getting to go to hospital? That’s not necessity it’s a jaunt! 😂

I have a significant physical disability. I think that allows me to "shoot my mouth off".

I was very, very relieved when my son was awarded DLA until just before his 16th birthday which means not having to deal with it again until the dreaded move to PIP.

Is there a reason why you don't claim PIP?

@Tryingtokeepgoing
So you think those qualifying for DLA shouldn’t have access to Motability (those will all be children)? It isn’t clear from your post..

As for your solution to restrict Motability to those “who need a modified vehicle, make leasing a car accessible to those in receipt of PIP but who don't work or who can't otherwise get credit, increase VAT income to HMRC and it would reduce the cost of higher rate PIP to DWP.”

Firstly you’d be OPENING the Motability scheme to people who don’t have mobility issues - so thousands and thousands of people not in work (your words) and that would save money… how?

Where is the saving in PIP? The government doesn’t pay Motability a single penny more than the mobility component of PIP.

Are you saying that people who don’t get the higher rate mobility component of PIP shouldn’t have access to Motability..? They ALREADY DON’T!

You say
“To reduce the number of Motability cars you simply need to review the qualifying criteria for higher rate PIP and review the VAT exemption. Limit higher rate PIP to those with physical disabilities, and limit the VAT exemption to modified vehicles, and the numbers would look very different.”

Higher rate PIP care component won’t get you a Motability car as you’d be ineligible. ONLY higher rate mobility rate of PIP or DLA makes you eligible for the Motability scheme. Is the physical illnesses you demand only because you think people have mental health problems so severe that they get the “higher rate PIp?

Forgive my use of AI I’m busy at the minute but for the avoidance of doubt here’s the eligibility criteria for PIP’s mobility component

Points depend on how psychological, cognitive or sensory issues affect your ability to travel:

• Needs prompting to undertake any journey – 4 points
• Cannot plan the route of a journey – 8 points
• Cannot follow a familiar route without help – 10 points
• Cannot undertake any journey because of overwhelming psychological distress – 10 points
• Cannot follow an unfamiliar route without help – 12 points

➡️ Score 12 points = eligible for Enhanced rate

✅ 2)
Moving around (physical mobility/walking)

Assessed on how far you can walk safely, repeatedly, reliably and in a reasonable time:

• Can stand & move more than 200m – 0 points
• Can stand & move 50–200m – 4 points
• Can stand & move 20–50m – 8 points
• Can stand & move less than 20m – 12 points
• Cannot stand or move at all – 12 points

➡️ Score 12 points = eligible for Enhanced rate

You are actually advocating for exactly how Motability is already structured!!!!!

Whats the advantage of stopping Motability having a greater number of cars? The VAT relief? Do you think the VAT relief is taking, as in actively taking government funds?

If your proposal (for a non government funded independent charity by the way) should extend to poor or out of work people to access vehicles why do you think Motability doesn’t do that already? Is it because it would go beyond its stated intentions as a charity?

Do you think the general public should meddle in any other charities providing equipment for the disabled?

Should the public decide how charities function and their purpose?

Do you think we should have just British made powered wheelchairs? Do you think VAT shouldn’t be or should be added to them? Should everyone have the same model?

What about hoists enabling people to be lifted? Should they all be ceiling track hoists or movable?
Should the track extend throughout the house or just in individual rooms?

Should incontinence products be given by need or income or usage or all 3? Or not given at all?

What about feeding aids? VAT free or not? Why?

Which part of 'the UK is on its knees' is going over the heads of those moaning about the supposed injustice of not being able to snag a Mercedes when a shiny brand new Citroën will do the job?

Zero people are moaning about that supposed injustice. People are responding to those who have got their red faces and spittle out to shout "good riddance, disabled people shouldn't be allowed nice things!"

Plenty of working people are on the brink of going under, and they certainly don’t have the luxury of casually adding a few extra thousand for a shinier badge.

Yes. I'm one of them. But this is a strawman argument and not relevant.

Yes, the middle and upper earners will take more of the load, that’s how progressive systems work, but everyone who can share a bit of the load should. If that means you don’t get the Merc, I’m honestly fine with that.

Different people who are disabled can have differing personal monetary circumstances to one another. They are not all 100% reliant on their benefits. Some of those people may even be middle and upper earners, or have wealth through other means. The government provides some benefits to all of them, regardless. If you think that that is unreasonable, that specific thing is what you have a problem with, not the Motability scheme.

It has been explained that private adaptations and insurance isn't usually possible in the UK, even for those who have the money. If you have a disability which means that you need an adapted vehicle, your only option is the Motability scheme.

If you think an able bodied person who has enough money should be able to buy a Merc but not the equivalent disabled person, then you're saying that people who have disabilities do not deserve equality with able bodied people.

FYI, there are no Mercedes currently available through the Motability scheme.

If I say I cannot follow an unfamiliar route without help could I get a motablity car? I would be telling the truth, I am rubbish and have no sense of direction. There is nothing wrong with me by the way. I probably do have a touch of ADHD but then don't we all, I have never gamed the system and been a benefit scrounge, but if that is all that is required to get 12 points then it is no wonder that the benefits bill is out of control.

£500 a month for a Yaris? That is insane. I have a "luxury" car as you would call it (BMW M440i coupe), brand new leased, and it is only £50 more a month than that. I wonder if you have a skewed view of the costs because of how much your mum is being ripped off by? I'm not on any benefits by the way, though have zero issue with those who do having any car they wish to which they (and is them paying for it) can afford to!

@Nanalovesnature
You tell us - would you get enhanced rate PIP ? You know yourself, we don’t.

Ha ha ha I'm not. I live with a few disabilities myself, but am not eligible for any benefits for them. I am also carer for an elderly parent who has only recently become eligible for attendance allowance only. Frankly, I am financially screwed.

The puny amount of money I will pay the taxman in January from my puny income really isn't funding more than maybe one nut and bolt of anybody's car, luxury or otherwise.

As far as I understand it, the government is paying the same amount towards so called luxury cars on Motability as it is the basic ones. It is the recipient who is paying the difference.

It is none of my business, and I couldn't give a damn which car my nut and bolt is attached to, as long as it's a car that somebody needs for disability reasons.

Just like it is none of mine or anybody else's damn business if somebody who is in receipt of the universal credit that my taxes also fund, spends some of that money on a bottle of vodka and a pouch of tobacco. I would prefer it if they didn't, but I much, MUCH prefer to live in a society that affords those whose circumstances are deemed to require government funded assistance, some dignity and freedom in their choices.

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.

Or an even more controversial thought, maybe employers could pay all employee's a wage that is sufficient, so nobody working full-time would need to claim any benefits ? why should all tax payers subsidise private companies ? Add in a decent rent cap and there will be a lot more money in the economy.

Where's my bingo card.....

I think we also need a pic of this must be gold plated Yaris.

Sure, you can just say any old thing and PIP assessors will fling money at you.

<sarcasm font>

Why not? Why not if they have that money and want something nice?
Because they’re disabled they shouldn’t want or deserve it is that the bottom line?

it doesn't cost the public purse more whatever the disabled person chooses.

Not at all. But the debate is where the tax breaks stop.

29 pages in and posters are still not grasping ,that the HRM is £77/ week for everyone, those that want a more expensive model put a substantial advanced payment down out of their OWN money.

What I’m I missing there’s a base level payment that will get you a basic car if they want a luxury car then the person individually funds the difference

the government make the same payment to the person if they have a Citroen C1 or a BMW X5

so the type of car they get makes zero difference to the amount of funding they receive

what is this change going to achieve

and if you need, not want, a WAV, you have very little choice but to pay much, much more in advance payments.