DLA and road tax exemption

reynardthefox

My son has a long term illness.He's 18 and gets esa and has just been awarded high rate dla which wont be paid as hes in hospital.I noticed he can get road tax exemption and I wondered if it would be worth claiming for my car.I use it mainly for going to see him (40 miles round trip) and getting him things from shop but I do use it for myself as well.If I change the log book to disabled would it affect my insurance premium in any way in the future.

CRH71

reynardthefox wrote: »

My son has a long term illness.He's 18 and gets esa and has just been awarded high rate dla which wont be paid as hes in hospital.I noticed he can get road tax exemption and I wondered if it would be worth claiming for my car.I use it mainly for going to see him (40 miles round trip) and getting him things from shop but I do use it for myself as well.If I change the log book to disabled would it affect my insurance premium in any way in the future.

I'll ignore the poster above being a little "sarky" with their comment......

To answer your question, I can tell you from personal experience that there will be no impact on your insurance premium going forwards by changing the taxation class to "Disabled".

The only bugbear is when you come to sell or part-exchange the car, you will have to re-register it as PLG - which means sending off the V5, of course, and waiting for that to come back before you can part company with the car. That, invariably, introduces a delay into the process.

CRH71

I can only comment on my own situation, where my own personal car is used for the benefit of not only myself, but my wife (who is the disabled person, but can sadly no longer drive) and my daughter.

We do claim the RFL exemption for the car (we could, if we chose have the Motability Car but that is where far more of the stringent rules come into it and to be frank I'd prefer not to go down that route if we can avoid it - our needs are for something pretty specific going forwards as circumstances have altered adversely in just a few short months).

However, the circumstances of the disability are such that I am effectively my wife's carer (I have just gone through the whole "flexible working" kerfuffle and formalised all the changes into my work contract to facilitate this) and thus, IF the car is used - to go shopping, take my daughter to school, collect my daughter from school, go and visit people as a family, go on holiday, etc., then it could give rise to the argument that these things are being done by the nominee (me) on behalf of the disabled person and therefore the exemption is applicable and valid.

We did make enquiries of the DWP (in writing, of course...) before I applied for the exemption and the reply I received from them suggested that, under the circumstances I would be using my personal car for, we were perfectly entitled to the exemption and, on the back of that paper trail, we were actually sent the appropriate form to apply for it.

[Deleted User]

the dvla will also clarify exemption issues,but dare i suggest that hospital visits wouldnt be one of them

CRH71

I've personally never had a problem with hospital visits - I would think that, as long as the visit was in connection with the illness/disability (i.e tests, further scans, medical reviews, etc.) then the exemption is still valid.

In the case of the OP, could the argument not be that the family is part of the disabled person's support network, and thus entitled to a degree of support themselves, therefore what support is appropriate? If they're going to visit the disabled in hospital, for the disabled person's benefit (to give support), then why would the exemption be invalid?

To be perfectly honest, to clarify this point, I'd advise the OP to give the Disability Benefits Unit a call in Blackpool (I'll try and dig out the number later for them - it's a specific unit/branch of the DWP and clearly specialist) - they really are very, very helpful indeed and will be able to give a definitive answer. From what you've said above, it is my opinion that applying for the exemption would be in your interest and entirely appropriate under the circumstances you describe but I'm not an expert in this field - I'm merely a lay-person with some experience of the subject.

Invalidation

CRH71 wrote: »

I'll ignore the poster above being a little "sarky" with their comment......
The only bugbear is when you come to sell or part-exchange the car, you will have to re-register it as PLG - which means sending off the V5, of course, and waiting for that to come back before you can part company with the car. That, invariably, introduces a delay into the process.

Wrong
All you do is that when you sell the car you get the new owners to complete their details, change the tax class from Disabled to PLG then send it off as normal.
Ive sold all my cars like this and never had a problem.

relic

There is no such thing as "Road Tax"

http://ipayroadtax.com/

reynardthefox

Thanks for your replies guys especially monkeyblue-I hope no misfortune ever happens to his family.Think I might give dvla a ring does anyone know the appropriate number/

[Deleted User]

http://www.dft.gov.uk/dvla/contactus.aspx

Invalidation

relic wrote: »

There is no such thing as "Road Tax"

http://ipayroadtax.com/

Oh so Disabled Drivers are Tax dodgers eh?

Its about time all cyclist paid Insurance for being on the road and tax for having their bikes on the roads too.

custardy

ellenette wrote: »

I'm not too worried about tax for cyclists, but I do think that they should have compulsory insurance.

There is no difference with being hit by a cyclist who is riding on the pavement and causing injury, as there is with a car/motorcycle moving just a slowly hitting someone.

Not having insurance for the latter is a criminal offence whilst the former just walks away!

More people need to sue cyclists when they cause damage or injury - that would certainly make them take out insurance.

I have never heard of getting insurance to perform an illegal act