Cars on motability scheme are now limited up to AP £2000

martianskies

It would be nice if they (the DWP who directly fund it) would increase the funding levels of the Specialised Vehicles Fund..... as it stands Motability have to ferociously means-test the most severely disabled and most vulnerable applicants, meaning many of them are being frozen out of the scheme entirely despite their needs. This is particularly true for those with a personal or household income (outgoings are only taken into account during the lengthy appeals process).

This rather flies in the face of Motability's stated aims!

ramsas

Regards the current attack on the prices of cars on the motability scheme which was kicked off by Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail who stated in his column that he was amazed when told by a friend in the trade that people were getting BMWs on the scheme and that if not for that some garages would be going under.How i bet that man wishes he had kept his mouth shut given that a considerable amount of trade must have been lost since the report was published,wonder if he still friends with him and i would imagine there been some good arguments going on in the background.No one wins in this issue,garages lose business and hence lose jobs and disabled people who preferred the choice have lost out to.....given the current economic climate the last thing we need is more job losses.

uponahill

ramsas wrote: »

Regards the current attack on the prices of cars on the motability scheme which was kicked off by Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail who stated in his column that he was amazed when told by a friend in the trade that people were getting BMWs on the scheme and that if not for that some garages would be going under.How i bet that man wishes he had kept his mouth shut given that a considerable amount of trade must have been lost since the report was published,wonder if he still friends with him and i would imagine there been some good arguments going on in the background.No one wins in this issue,garages lose business and hence lose jobs and disabled people who preferred the choice have lost out to.....given the current economic climate the last thing we need is more job losses.

I have no idea where you are getting your facts from, but Motability have numerous models still available
http://www.motabilityonline.co.uk/carsearch/paginatedSearch.htm

The vehicles are in the range of 1 & 3 series and the 4x4 X1

intranicity

uponahill wrote: »

I have no idea where you are getting your facts from, but Motability have numerous models still available
http://www.motabilityonline.co.uk/carsearch/paginatedSearch.htm

The vehicles are in the range of 1 & 3 series and the 4x4 X1

They got this information from the same place the rest of us who were interested, the Daily Mail and their website. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2047593/Motability-schemes-starting-resemble-worst-excesses-Arthur-Daley-.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2052277/Motability-scheme-New-rules-mean-35k-BMWs-disabled-drives.html

They were making out that people on Motability were being given BMW X3's and top end Mercedes-Benz cars costing £35,000 for FREE.

Sadly, they for some strange reason (Like it ruined a story), they choose not to point out that these cars were far from free, and that if someone disabled wanted a vehicle like this, as well as handing back their HRM, or in my case WPMS they also ended up paying in some case's up to £9,000 in advanced payments.

I believe that they ended up having to issue some sort of correction and point out the actual reality, but by then, all the constant knocking of the scheme had caused too much damage, and Motability brought in the £2000 limit (Or in my case as a War Pensioner, a £1000 limit)

Cheers Littlejohn, you're a pratt of the first order, and I really hope one day, you are in a wheelchair or one of your children get injured serving this country, lets see what headlines you write then....

PS My current vehicle had zero advanced payment, and just changing to a vehicle with a £300 AP, on my War Pension, I could never ever have afforded to run, or pay the Advance Payment on a BMW X3, BUT I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO STILL HAD THE CHOICE, sadly, many vehicles I was looking at are no longer available to me, that before would have been, and for less than £2000

RANT OVER :mad::mad::mad:

intranicity

Out of interest, according to that pathetic piece of “Journalism”, there are 575,000 motabilty cars on the road (Granted that is a lot of cars, presumably doing a lot to keep the car industry going) and in the last year? (they don’t say what period these figures cover);

There have been 7,144 “Allegations” of fraud, approx. 1.5%

Of these, 829 people had their cars withdrawn, approx. 0.2%

and 486 people suspended or permanently banned from the scheme, less than 0.1%

There are less than 14,000 War Pensioners getting WPMS (It’s bloody hard to get)

PERSONALLY, I WOULD SAY THOSE FIGURES ARE SO SMALL IN TERMS OF MISUSE AND FRAUD THAT THE WHOLE STORY WAS A TOTAL NON ISSUE AND THIS IS JUST A WITCH HUNT AGAINST THOSE THAT CAN’T FIGHT BACK.

Comments like “To get a £25,000 car, claimants will have to use their monthly £205 mobility allowance plus a so-called ‘advance payment’ of £2,000 from their own funds” still make the article sound like the authors are jealous of the disabled. I’m sure 99.99% of us would happily swap HRM or WPMS to have our health back

As for people who are getting HRM because of alcohol and drug abuse etc, that is where maybe the awards of HRM should have been looked at, but it’s very unjust to hit people for making a claim and being accepted because they fit the rules. Change the eligibility, if needs be, but the Motability scheme worked fine. They should have questioned who is eligible to get HRM, and not attacked a scheme that really helps many disabled people!

sweetiex

having read through some of these posts i have to say i think this is a disgrace,only allowing a £2000 advance payment,we only have a basic car as my hubby isnt in a wheelchair,plus we dont have money in advance for so called posh cars,personally i do think some people are taking the mick with some of the bigger models,i have seen many folks with these big flashy numbers,displaying blue badges and often wonder,though in all seriousness its none of anybodies business is it,i feel very humble at being given the opportunity to having a car at all,we live in a small rural village and i take my hubby for 80 mile round dialysis 3 times a week,everywhere we go has to involve long distance travelling,i dont know what i would do without it,what im most upset with is for the war veterans and especially the disabled in the motor wheelchairs,they are so big and need the space,this isnt fair at all and should be sorted out my heart goes out to the disabled people who this is affecting:(

uponahill

It's all down to public perception. People working, paying tax see others driving round in new cars that they would have no hope of ever being able to drive. Right or wrong, that's how they see it.

Paying for it is another thing. People do view these cars as being free. If you look at the maths of it. The government hand out £50 of taxpayers money to a disabled person, then that same £50 goes back to Motability for a car. In other words the government has funded the deal and not the disabled person out of his or her own resources.

I know different, but there are millions in this country see it this way!

Personally I can't see what the problem really is, if someone is prepared to put £9000 of their own money into a car that they will never own, good luck to them.

Luxury cars with Blue Badges does not mean that they are Motability cars. For a start the tax disc would tell you if the car is registered as a disabled vehicle. If not then it is a normal car using a parking badge who may or may not be disabled!

Alan_M_2

The reason some cars are appearing with an AP of over £2000 is mostly to do with Automatic gearboxes.

Say a manual model was available at an AP of £1,900, but the cap of £2,000 rules out exactly the same car with an auto gearbox, which for many disabled drivers is essential. They felt this was unreasonable so allowed any auto vehicle to be included in the list if the manual equivalent qualified under the £2000 AP limit.

Example -

New Mercedes B200 CDi Sport - AP £1999 (manual)

Same car with an Auto - AP £2,999

Additional vehicles are still listed with as much as £10,000 AP's but these are heavily modified WAV's that will be assessed on a case by case basis.

Motability are the single largest vehicle operator in the UK. At any one time they have upwards of 600,000 vehicles on contract. They are by far Fords largest customer.

What Motability does actually shapes the list prices of the motor industry.

Over the next year or two expect to see the major manufacturers price more vehicles at £24,999 and fit a spec suitable fo motability sales to circumvent the short sighted rule changes.

Denny_Crane

sweetiex wrote: »

personally i do think some people are taking the mick with some of the bigger models,i have seen many folks with these big flashy numbers,displaying blue badges and often wonder,though in all seriousness its none of anybodies business is it

The thing is that even the Higher rate of Mobility componenet receivers, onl;y about 30% actually use the Motability lease for their cars, the rest either, like me, choose to lease a car privatly as the list did not give me the option i wanted and the insurnace was too restrictive, or they take taxis, get family/friends etc to drive them about and paty their petrol money with the DLA payment.
You dont need to be in recipt of teh higher rate to get a blue badge, as these are currently supplied by the local council, so I would be very surprised if these flashy numbers are actually Motability lease scheme cars.

But, the changes in the DLA to PIP will destroy the lives of thousands of disabled, who dont need a wheelchair form the doorstep, but can struggle to walk with a stick/cruthces etc, for a small distance as under pIP they dont get enough points to get teh higher rate, so will lose their Motability cars, their independance, possibly their jobs and yes, will become reclusive oprisoners in their own homes, so teh government can continue to pay billions in overseas aid to countries who dont want ot need it, and pay their favouriet assesment contractor wait for this...£500 MILLION over seven years to reduce the amount of disabled claiming PIP by 500,000

uponahill

Denny_Crane wrote: »

But, the changes in the DLA to PIP will destroy the lives of thousands of disabled, who dont need a wheelchair form the doorstep, but can struggle to walk with a stick/cruthces etc, for a small distance as under pIP they dont get enough points to get teh higher rate, so will lose their Motability cars, their independance, possibly their jobs and yes, will become reclusive oprisoners in their own homes, so teh government can continue to pay billions in overseas aid to countries who dont want ot need it, and pay their favouriet assesment contractor wait for this...£500 MILLION over seven years to reduce the amount of disabled claiming PIP by 500,000

Do I take it from the tone of your comments that you disagree with the new 'PIP benefit?

Why, when whilst it might and probably will cause problems for some genuine cases, the vast number that will certainly be affected are those that never deserved DLA in the first place.

Seen as righting a wrong and has been a long time coming.
And before you tell me that I have no idea about what I am saying. I get HRM & MRC under DLA. I WILL lose my HRM under PIP. But I see it as a small price to pay if the payment will only go to the most deserving of cases.