Daily Fail at it again with free cars for hyperkids BS

[purplemurple]

Crackdown on £35,000 cars for the disabled,
Tough new rules will end the scandal of disabled people getting taxpayer funded luxury cars worth up to £37,000.
The changes follow concerns over the abuse of the scheme which has seen the parents of hyperactive children getting free cars.
blah blah blah

There must be a way of stopping this clap trap being printed, surely.

link pls? didn't they just do this story recently? is this ANOTHER story?

I read this - apparently they are with drawning BMW from the scheme. Will go and find a link.

here

thanks - I couldn't find it - apparently not enough coffee in my system yet this morning lol

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2052689/Crackdown-35-000-cars-disabled-New-rules-stop-disabled-getting-luxury-cars-taxpayer.html

The way this article is worded insinuates that those with cars for children with ADHD are abusing the system

I truly despite these articles. We have a car (although not a mobility one) and could NOT do without it. DS2 has ADHD (along with a few other difficulties) and mobility is a huge concern for us. He has no road safety, impulse control, comprehension problems, sensory issues, and walking and public transport can sometimes be VERY difficult with him.

I get really tired of them making it sound like people are just HANDED expensive cars for free.

These articles make things so much harder for families. We don't get a car through DLA for our daughter but like Triggles, there is no way we could manage without one. I am not even sure if we would qualify for one because she is able to walk etc. But has absolutely no sense of safety and often just drops to the ground and refuses to walk. It's ok now because she is only 4 and we can pick her up but I don't know what we will do when she is older. Anyway, it's alright for people out there that have never had to deal with these situations and these children to just think they are naughty and just need discipline but as you all know it is just not as simple as that with an ASD or an ADHD child. I wish I could think of a way to get through to these people what our families deal with day to day. I know if they had to deal with it they would never make light of it again.

sadly i think for anybody with a 'hidden' disability there is always an element of doubt from other people. Far too many times i have been questioned accusingly as to why we are parked in a disabled space and it really upsets me that people can be so rude and confrontational.

my dcs have a genetic condition causing pain, fatigue and frequent dislocations but to look at them you wouldnt know there was anything wrong. knowing how hard it is with my 3 dcs i simply cant imagine how hard it must be for a parent of a child with asd/ adhd to get around especially when public transport can be so noisy and crowded and i think these families are more than entitled to a motability car.

Unfortunately though it seems to be the daily mails (and many other people who ive had the misfortune to encounter) opinion that children like mine are just lazy and children with adhd are just naughty and i find it so offensive, it really saddens me

Telegraph did a similar article a day before. As usual the DM 'they get free cars' story is just a copy of one from another paper. They have an agenda but don't begin to do the articles to back it up so publish stories with a few unchecked points to press the buttons for their readership. Both articles had pictures of the old three wheel cars and comments that they should be re-introduced.

Here is a link that might be of interest to counter the despair and anger that these articles incur.

www.disabilityalliance.org/badnewsfordisabled.htm

Trouble is a "standard" car can cost a sheer fortune to adapt so that it is suitable for the specific disabled user. There is such a wide variation of disabiities to cater for from hand only controls to uber safe locks and belts. Last time I looked cars didn't come off the production ready wheelchair adapted as standard (rolls eyes), nor do oxygen tanks etc go in the boot of a ford Ka.

Be a lone parent of a disabled kid right now and the media truly does wanna depict you as the lowest of the low. Make that an invisible disabiity like adhd etc and you can forget any kind of empathy or kindness from Joe Public.

Those that buy into this kind of crap need to remember nearly everyone ends up with some "disabiity" at some point in life, whether due to accident, illness or even old age. Most people I know are shocked at how low welfare payments really are when they find themselves having to make that first claim after losing their job for whatever reason. The Daily Fail leads Joe Public into a false sense of security that they'll be OK if the worst happens.

No I don't qualify for the motability scheme & for that I'm grateful. Does noone who writes these articles of envy EVER stop & just count their blessings?

Well said, Bochead!!

I was listening to Nick Ferrari this morning and he was asking this chap from the Mobility Association why people with AIDS were given cars. The guy started blustering and falling over his words, everyone is different, every case is unique etc etc. He didnt seem to have an answer as to who got what and why! No wonder this has been picked up so quickly if this was the best the association could do. In these days of recession and the like we DO need to be clear who has what and why..

Of course no one minds the geninue getting a car, but someone with a personality disorder, someone with AIDS, someone coming off drugs and the like (sounds like a recipe for disaster!) are these really the geninue and needy?

why would someone with AIDS not deserve a car? Isn't AIDS a debilitating condition?

So, what about cancer, what about any type of terminal illness. The fact is as harsh as it sounds we cannot fund everything. And no, I dont think someone with AIDS (however tragic) should be given a car.

and your reasons are...?

Aids = breakdown of the bodies immune system. Knew a lovely once who got infected by her unfaithful hubby - she's gone now.

So potentially depending on the individual:-
serious arthritis, swollen joints affecting the abiiity to walk. Post pnuemonia damage meaning oxygen tanks need to go everywhere. Heart/major organ problems. Risk of catching the common cold being potentially fatal on public transport. Rare and peculiar cancers, Lupus type symptoms.

Someone coming off drugs? Well I know amphetimine use can cause disabling arthritis having known someone who needed a double hip replacement aged 40 due to speed use in their teens/early 20's. Bad "yoof" who became a Uni Lecturer so now pays his tax like a good citizen.

I don't even have any anecdotal references for personality disorders lol!

This division of the "worthy" from the "unworthy" is a mean trick that becomes insidous and pervasive and costs us all as we don't present a united front when under attack like we should.

Anyone whose ever filled in the application forms knows the bar is set pretty high for disabiiity benefits. Agree the relevant professional organisations should be able to state the case for their continued existance in the current climate or we'll all suffer from the politics of envy.

That's an emotive one Rocky. I mean if people with say Aids (which can be very debilitating and isolating) cannot get some help does this mean that those who have chosen an unhealthy lifestyle and are paying the price also cannot get one; like those with COPD in older age from smoking when they were younger for example?
I'm not saying one way or t'other but it's such a broad spectrum where would the line be drawn?
For example, my MIL has emphysema, asthma and all sorts and only recently (well about 5 yrs ago) got a mobility car after I helped her complete her claim (previously she'd been refused) but her illnesses are mainly down to smoking although she stopped 32 years ago.
I'm not judging- I am a smoker so it'd be hypocritical of me- and she's worked all her life until just a few years ago so has paid much in tax over the years.
I don't think they'd manage without her car.

So, whats the answer, carry on as we are, let all the snippets from people saying that they know people who are 'gifted' cars, who use a relatives mobility car to go to work or out socialising. That's OK then.....

Upda - but where do we stop? I am geninuely asking. What is the answer?

Rocky SN board is not Like AIBU please stay away if you have nothing supportive to say. If you do not have a child with SN don't come here.
I have a mobility car for ds2, asd, sld and adhd, if we didn't we would be confined to this house, and we fought for it for almost 2 years. The motorbility company doesn't decide who gets high rate mobility, DLA do so the man on the radio wouldn't know why someone with AIDS had a car.

I don't know where the line should be Rocky. Personally I do feel that druggies shouldn't get them.
Here there is a guy, well known by all, a real waste of space, druggie, alkie etc.. killed 3 young teens in his mobility car a couple of years ago by driving at 124MPH in a 30 zone (hit a 300 yr old oak and knocked it down such was the impact).
The other teen in his car is now a paraplegic. One of the teens was pregnant, they identified her by her arm alone. He escaped with broken leg and collar bone after dragging one girl (the one now a paraplegic) into the driving seat to make it look like she was driving
He was driving a mobility car which he'd been given because prior to this he'd crashed his car because he was off his head on drink and drugs and smashed his heels.

At the time this happened my eldest had had his Mobility reduced to low rate because apparently even though he qualified for HRC due to him needing 'supervision at all times' and 'being so severely mentally impaired' etc regarding the mobility component he 'only needed supervision in unfamiliar places' (quote/unquote)
It took me 8 months, 2 appeals and one tribunal to get this decision overturned. I was doing my finals at uni at the time too.
The reason I was so determined to fight this was because of the deaths of these lovely young innocent people due to a drugged up driver on HRM.

You tell me where they should draw the line and how the f* they plan to do it without genuine people suffering, cos that's what'll happen, trust me!
(I apologise for swearing but I am a tad mad right now, whenever i drive past this stump of an oak tree I get mad)

Don't these stupid people know you have to relinquish your HRM to get a car and it is a lease car and you have to return it after 3 or 5 years depending on your agreement. Our car is not used for work or joyriding it is used for our 2 DC's in wheelchairs. BTW it is not a BMW! Most people have a Kangoo or Berlingo wheelchair adapted. Going now before I explode.

So what exactly are your reasons for denying a motability car to someone with AIDS, Rocky? Do you think they will be insufficiently disabled?

Or is it because it is self inflicted?
(in which case what about the child who got AIDS from his mother? The virgin wife who is infected by her husband on her wedding night? Or conversely, what about the diabetic who had a limb amputated after 50 years of eating too many sweet cakes?)

Or is it because you think of it as an illness rather than the result of an accident or a hereditary condition?

i might be repeating things here but my auntie is entitled to a mobility car but she already has a car so doesnt get one, i thought (i might be wrong) you pay for the car out of the DLA money so it doesn't matter if someone gets a car or not does it? if they dont have the car they are getting more money per week?

i think every case is unique, why shouln't someone with AIDS get a mobility car, it goes on mobility and how someone is affected not the conditions name surely?