Help with Motorbility please

myonlysunshine

Hi everyone, hope somebody might be able to give some advice if possible..

I was awarded Higher rate mobility and low rate care DLA in June 2009, Although not very mobile on my feet, I am lucky enough to still drive. so after my car decided to fail its MOT this week, I realised that my only option to have a car would be to use my mobility allowance to lease a car.

After test driving a couple of cars, I made a decision on a car and an application form was completed. My husband had a call today from the car dealership to say that i was 'unable' to have a Motorbility car as I only have until June 2012 left on my DLA award and the DWP will not allow you to lease a car if you have 12 months or under left of your award.:(:(

Im gutted as I have no other option to get a car, I am physically not able to do without one having chilldren plus the independance keeps the depression at bay (hope i dont sound greedy) .

I will ring DWP in the morning, which i am already dreading after the four years it took me to get the award in the first place, I feel ill at the thought of ringing them.

Has anyone else been in the same situation, or could offer any advice?

Many Thanks for reading,

Mel

akabee

This is from Motability, not good news.

Advantages of Motability Car Scheme:

The Motability Car Scheme is designed to help people with disabilities to stay mobile.
If you have a disability that qualifies you for the Higher Rate Mobility Component of DLA, or the War Pensioners' Mobility Supplement
and you have more than one year left on your award, then you qualify for the Motability Car Scheme.

Selfsufficient_Girl

I Mel - yes unfortunately if you have less than 1 year on DLA higher award you cannot get Motability - the same goes for Disabled Freedom Pass and Blue Badge if you are going to apply for any of these.

If you feel that your mobility is a real issue and either its deteroiating regularly or possibly worse than before - I would suggest making an amendment to your existing claim - change of circumstances, they may extend your claim.

Having said that you want to talk to your doctor about your situation and get a letter from them and also if you are seeng any speciailist or physio also get some kind of documentation to support your change of circumstances claim. The more information you give it will help your change of circumstances claim. Also the reality is if your mobility has detoriated you can also do a self referral to your local council for assessment for some care assistance - again all this documentation will help your case and most likely DLA will extend your DLA allowing you a vehicle.

It can be an arduous process - but trust me the more information you give up front the smoother your application will go through as they will see it is a genuine claim/change of circumstances.


The only other option I can think of is asking some vehicle sellers if they do leasing or discounted sale directly to disabled person.:o

ramsas

Of course the other course of action would be to get your existing car repaired to get it through the MOT....what did the car fail on? not all repairs are costly and there may well be someone close to you who could help get it sorted at an agreeable price, i of the opinion that you are better off with your own car if you able to do so,thus saving the allowance for other needs you may have...but obviously it is very much down to personal preference has the scheme is very good value for money and cancels out a lot of the costs that come with running a car/insurance/ breakdown/tyres etc.

wazza

If you can afford to and it is at resonable cost have your car repaired.

If you are seriously considering about having a car on the motability scheme then you should ring up DWP and explain your circumstances. Friend was in a similar situation. They asked him to fill out a 'change in circumstances' forms. The DWP person told him what to do. Basically there are three forms to fill. Been told to write 'no changes' on the last two forms. In the first form just explain why you need an extension and that when you get your award there should be at least a year left allowing you to order a new car. It may take a month or two for you to get a new award if accepted.

Will ask my friend tomorrow if he kept copies of the forms.

Magenta

Just to say that if you do get a motobility car you may well loose your payment for Care.

wazza

Magenta wrote: »

Just to say that if you do get a motobility car you may well loose your payment for Care.

I think you are wrong, the person will only have their high rate motability payment going towards the lease of the car, they will still get their low rate care allowance.

Anubis_2

Be careful, asking for award revision can put your current award at risk, so consider carefully.

myonlysunshine

Many thanks to you all for taking the time out to reply.

I feel such a plonker for not looking into this properly prior to applying to get a car on Motorbility.

I really didnt want to use my allowance to get a car intially as we do need as much money as we can get right now with one income that has already dropped considerably over the last 12 months. My car was worth £300 and the repairs were over £500 (my husband is in the motortrade and even asked on favours from friends).

Last night, my husband spoke to his parents and they are considering helping us out with a cheap car, so hopefully we can arrange something and not involve DLA. I agree with Anubis, im worried that if I apply for an extension with DWP that I may 'rock the boat' and lose my award altogether especially after how long it took to be awarded in the first place.

Im fretting more now as my mum died in March and my dad, whos in his early 60' isnt mobile at all and lives alone and my sis has a car but is going back to work full time soon, so im panicking about getting up to see him too:(

Sorry for the rant, enough moaning! i should be able to see that I am complicating the situation with other things but im grateful that my In Laws may be able to help.

Thanks again,
Mel

rogerblack

myonlysunshine wrote: »

My car was worth £300 and the repairs were over £500 (my husband is in the motortrade and even asked on favours from friends).

Last night, my husband spoke to his parents and they are considering helping us out with a cheap car

I would strongly consider this, rather than motability, if your husband is in the motor trade.
Consider that if you'd been putting all your HRM in savings, you would have had enough money to pay for the repairs in 10 weeks.

Motability is (in my opinion) only a good deal for those that want a new car, or must have one for some reason.

If you can deal with maintenance on your own, or with help, that 2500/year can pay for a lot of motoring costs, with spare left over.

Motability does of course have advantages for some.
If your DLA gets cancelled, they do not take the car away immediately.
They deal with all repairs.
Adaptions in some cases can be very expensive.

But for someone willing to drive something second hand, especially if they can get good advice as to what's reliable, and possibly slightly discounted repair costs, I don't think it's sensible, especially considering that things are going to be in flux with the upcoming changes to DLA.

myonlysunshine

Thanks Roger for your sound advice,

I seem to have gone about this process the wrong way round!

My husband is trying to sort something out at work, I am overworrying about it all and being a tad impatient i think.

My husband is thinking of asking his parents for a small loan and I can repay my mobility allowance to them over a period of time.. it wont be alot of money just a cheap run around. They are not always forthcoming helping even though he is an only child and they are well off, we would rather be able to do it ourselves, although we would be obviously be very grateful for the help if they offered.

Thanks again.
Mel