So a friend of ours recently bought a bargain two year old car. Minimal mileage, regularly serviced, nice spec, barely used condition, one previous owner etc etc
If you haven’t guessed it… yes it’s an ex motability car. The car dealer told our friend, genuinely very sadly, that they can’t sell them quickly enough to keep up with the absolute deluge of them because they are being taken away from their owners as a result of the scandalous outcomes of PIP assessment process. He says not a day passes when they don’t hear another story that tears them up.
I’ve heard that they are having too many applications so are just refusing all new applications in the hope that people don’t appeal. I’ve applied but haven’t had a decision yet but I won’t hold my breath.
However bad their reputation, I can’t see the DWP doing that. If you are refused, check to see what points you think you should have been awarded (take the test on here: https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/ ) if you think you should have more po8nts than you’ve been awarded, go for a mandatory reconsideration.
A few observations. To buy a scooter through motability is mad to be honest i bought one perfectly in good condition for 400.00 an Invacare 8mph one in great condition hardly used. Its road legal and has now got a number plate. i had looked at motablity to get one and it worked out a ridiculous price. It would have cost me 115.88 of my DLA to pay for it. I did look at betterlife and i could have bought one on sale at the time cheap and the finance was very good half that price, and also i could get my VAT off. I am now looking a power chair you can buy one from betterlife and pay for it monthly at less cost then motability over 36months i found one at 599.00 similar to motability.
OK yes people buy them as they are replaced every 3 years and you get maintenance but i have a maintenance schedule with a local company and its not much, and as i keep ALL of my mobility allowance i can afford to do it. I am not sure it was to stop people falling as i know more people who have ended up in hospital on scooters then without to be honest. The figures are really a lot higher now in 2018.
I know my friend was in hospital for 3 months. she backed up and fell into a culvert and ended up trapped under her scooter. My friends was a motability scooter just a freak accident but they are happening all the time. People are using 8mph scooters on pavements they have no idea its against the rules and dangerous. People are being RUN over by them.
My other friend tipped over on his powerchair because the pavement was in such a mess. He was mess for weeks. I am not sure they are any safer then using a tri walker to be honest in respect to accidents and falls. Regularly i see old guys driving theirs after a lunch at the pub lol. Dont forget motability is for anyone with DLA or PIP and lots of people got DLA on enhanced rate who dont have MS.
A car is different. I think it was a great scheme, the idea on DLA was to encourage people to keep working so they rewarded them with a car. Mind you a lot of manufacturing companies made out of this scheme as well and still do.
I think its disgusting that people loose their car if they fail to get enhanced on changeover. Although i believe their car wont be removed until after all the process has been completed. People need to realise that PIP is written in such a way they dont want you to have a car. I believe they are phasing the scheme out.
The first question is can you plan a journey well if you can drive you can.
The idea of PIP is to support people with needs in care i think over mobility. Mobility is last in PIP. A lot of people get full care and enhanced rate and standard in mobility, yet in DLA i am sure it was more the other way round.
I honestly think they are phasing it out. It is sad as it has helped a lot of people with their independence. Actually what annoys me as well is if someone looses their car instead of motability selling them on to strangers why dont they offer them to the exact people who failed their PIP. A lot of them will get standard and could afford to pay monthly an amount to purchase it especially if they are selling them at bargain prices.
Now that’s scandalous too.
As a point if you get standard Mobility you can get half your car tax paid for which is a help a lot of people are not aware of that.
Yep PIP = not being able to drive, or plan a journey. Your doomed basically.
DLA = getting you out and about and going to work.
Yet we are told by governments they want even disabled people to go to work…yeh right so what do you do, you take their cars off them, do you suggest they crawl to work, or get a piggy back ride. IDIOTS they really are. Short sighted loonie tunes.
The scheme has helped so many people keep active and sane. But come on lets sell back these cars really cheap to the people who have lost them. Rather then auction them or sell them to strangers. Bah humbug.
P.S. i chose not to get a motability car as i feared this from the get go, i always think if something is too good to be true it usually is, and over my time i managed to have a really nice car which i still paid for with my DLA and free tax. I surrendered my licence now as i wont drive havent for a long time, but i just felt something like this would happen.
To be honest i think that is chinese whispers. I know several people down south who have been offered their PIP really quickly non have MS, most are actually mental health issues. The thing is with PIP it is actually helping a larger spectrum of people with issues. So perhaps some areas have more people with these issues then others?
I dont believe for one minute they would just refuse a new application in the hope that people dont appeal. I really havent seen that where i live, far from it more applications are being passed and very quickly.
Thats the truth as I know it. I dont like the way the scheme is back against people with their car it upsets me, i think its wrong, and yes more are getting standard but then winning on appeal thankfully, but as to just not bothering as they dont want people to appeal no i dont see that.
To some extent, I disagree with your points about PIP being more about care than mobility. (Although you are quite right about getting scooters or power chairs from Motability - it’s often not worth the amount of PIP you lose.)
The 20 metres rule is scandalous. As if someone who can walk between 20 and 50 metres is somehow less disabled than someone who can only walk 10 metres. The fact is that PIP for mobility (or DLA) at the enhanced rate should be given to those who can walk more than 20 but less than 50 metres. They would then perhaps retain more actual Independence by qualifying for a Motability car. Certainly I used my DLA to help me retain a modicum of independence back when I could walk with a crutch, but needed an adapted car to go further than the end of my driveway.
I use my enhanced PIP for mobility for a Motability car. It’s not adapted because I’m no longer capable of that level of independence, but my husband drives it and it thereby enables me to get out. (Just been for a brief push along the seafront.)
Certainly people who cannot walk qualify for the enhanced rate of PIP for mobility, equally there are those who have cognitive damage so qualify on those grounds.
I don’t think the mobility element of PIP is being phased out. There are just too many people who cannot walk who qualify. Many of us on this site.
And certainly Motability could be offering to sell people’s existing cars to them when they fail to qualify for enhanced PIP for mobility. I wonder who is making the most money from these private sales?
“Government figures predict that, with the mobility criteria set at 20 metres, 548,000 of the 892,000 working-age people who were receiving the higher rate of the DLA mobility component in February 2013 will not receive the enhanced mobility rate of PIP once they are transferred to the new benefit.”
But we must not forget PIP is now costing 20% more than the old DLA. The extra admin costs must be a large
part of this, including all those tribunal expenses, and the fact that more folk with mental health illnesses now
get the standard rate for Daily Living.
Was welfare reform in the 2010 Tory manifesto? No it wasn’t.