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.

Exactly, should be eating bread and water for their meals too.

Who cares? As long as the disabled are seen to be living a more miserable existence than everyone else. Bastards (the government not people with disabilities).

Nobody ‘deserves’ anything.
If you can afford a Mercedes -great -buy one and find it yourself.
If you can’t -simple transport system to get people to hospital appointments - much cheaper than providing a car for the rellies to use 95% of the time it isn’t needed for ‘appointments’

Most people agree that disabled people should have access to decent, reasonable items. One person on a thirty page thread states that the disabled should have the bare minimum, and suddenly that becomes the frame for the whole conversation. Suddenly all posters are scum and want to punish the disabled.

And on the idea of 'hatred': disabled people aren’t uniquely singled out. Right now every group is getting piled on for something - the able-bodied, pensioners, people in larger homes, anyone earning over £45k, people of different backgrounds… the list goes on. Disabled posters and carers have displayed all the negative characteristics of the able bodied in that regard.

That's where we are as country, resentment and financial frustration that spills over into every discussion, regardless of who the group actually is because things are tough.

They weren’t buying the car. They were leasing and payed a massive premium towards it. Please get your facts right.

I feel as if many posters have no experience of friends or family members with a disability. After a bi-lateral stroke my daughter claims PIP and uses her mobility award for a car. She has a bigger car because it's easier for her to get in and out of and the boot needs to be big enough to hold her wheelchair. She paid for the adaptations for 1 handed use herself as well as a down payment which she won't get back.
IMO if anyone wants to use their savings as a large down payment for a better car more suited to their needs, then let them without judgment.
The mobility element of PIP is the same for everyone on the higher rate so anyone with a luxury car has used their own money for the down payment.
Disabled people aren't a lower class citizen so lets stop treating them as such.

You think a 'simple transport system' which would have to be available in all areas in the country for all hospitals in the country and will probably be anything BUT simple or reliable would actually work?

It isn't going to be cheap either.

Well, exactly. And the vast majority of people are too short sighted to see that the issue lies with wages being too low, top earners not being taxed enough etc etc - the government has made us all hate each other.

I’m having toast and soup for my dinner , maybe I should pop to the local hospital and get jealous about what the sick and disabled are being offered for free. They might get pudding as well. Totally unfair ! They don’t even have to go shopping to get it!

There is an advance payment that has to be made, which is the difference between the actual cost of the car, and what the lease payment covers. The car is never the property of the disabled person - has to be returned at the end of 3 or 5 year lease, so the advance payment is lost. Most disabled people can’t afford a luxury model, so go for something that suits them, rather than a status symbol. Genuinely disabled people value the mobility that the scheme gives them, they don’t give a toss about status.

So this change shouldn’t be a big deal?

I am actually stunned that this was ever allowed. Yes of course some payment to 'upgrade' but they were not subject to VAT so advantageous, hugely unfair and such a big waste of money.

And people with 'mental health' issues can claim a car. WT actual F!!

The whole system needs an overhaul. Just because you have a 'disability' (and I'm obviously not referring to severe physical disability) lots of these types of assistance should not come into play. They've increased too much since mental health was included.

And of course the biggest benefactor of this scheme was the person who came up with it!!

Many working households with a disabled person in them are struggling, just as many with all members able bodied are.

Many disabled people are well off, just as many able bodied people are.

So if a well off able bodied person can lease a flash car, why can't a well off disabled person do the same?

Bearing in mind you can't walk in to a dealership and request modifications outside the Motability scheme.

Many people on here seem saying that every disabled person is trumped by the able bodied, and if a less well off family of able bodied people can't afford a BMW then a disabled person of any means can't have one either.

‘Would you rather be disabled? Is the conversation equivalent of stamping your feet and screaming when you have run out of reasonable arguments. Grow up.

Not for the majority of disabled people, no. I was a disability outreach worker for over twenty years,and am disabled myself- wheelchair user. In my experience of those l supported, and personal circumstance, the ability to get around is paramount. So a vehicle which meets your needs and has the least cost is usually the choice.

Disabled people don't just spend all of their time either at home or at hospital appointments, though - they aren't a disability in a human body that exists purely as a problem to be solved; they're people with all the richness of life just like everybody else, albeit with more daily challenges to achieve it.

A disabled person using their Motability car to get to work, go to the shops, go out socialising, to restaurants, to the cinema in their leisure time etc. or on holiday isn't 'cheating the system' any more than an able-bodied person with their own car doing the same things would be.

And as for the 'rellies', a lot of them have children and need suitable transport for them to get around to where they need to be - just like all parents; as well as spouses/partners who may need to drive them around if they don't have their own licence and/or have 'bad days' when they just aren't up to driving.

Then why are so many up in arms saying disabled people deserve this luxury?

We have an all singing, all dancing Renault Austral. It’s fabulous.

An upgrade from our little Citroen DS that I drive now.

We put £3000 in ourselves.

To get it, all we had to do was have my DH develop Multiple myeloma and have 5 broken vertebrae and be confined to bed for 6 months and then a wheelchair since. He’ll die in the next couple of years as it’s not a curable cancer so don’t worry the car will go back.

The new car lets him actually get in it, it’s higher. It has heated seats so he doesn’t tense his back too much. It also has space for his wheelchair. We can fit our 5 and 6 year olds in comfortably as well.

It’s just terrible that he’s not confined to the house isn’t it?

I don’t care if you’re offended OP. In fact I’m laughing at all the anger you have towards disabled people and their advantages!

So just out of interest, where do you draw the line? Should a disabled person only eat basic ready meals instead of buying Tesco’s finest if they’ve got a bit of savings? Should they not buy any luxuries whatsoever because they’re receiving money from the government by way of a small amount of benefits plus a tax break on a car?

Does this apply to people getting other government perks? What about people not paying tax on money they put into their pension? The taxpayer is paying for that. It costs over £50billion a year. But we can afford that. What about tax free childcare? Or if you receive a £1million inheritance you don’t have to pay a single penny in IHT on that unearned windfall. Lovely little tax break right there. Have a few kids, the government can pay 6 grand a year to educate them.

But god forbid a disabled person gets thrown a few crumbs. Only healthy working people deserve the spoils.

It's not one person on a thread, it's a prevalent view throughout society.

I understand it. I just think you’re woefully lost in anger.

Only able people work theit butts off?

It sounds a lot like envy to me. Maybe those people like to swap?

It’s a valid argument when we’re talking about the experience of GENUINELY disabled people facing having a scheme originally intended to keep them mobile and included in society taken away because non disabled people have no fucking idea of what lack of mobility means to someone disabled.