Crazy benefits system need an overhaul

Telepathy is one of my special skills elegran

If you can't walk, you need wheelchair and these motability-benefits vhicles are adapted for user, i.e to allow wheelchair access. We chose not to give up our DLA Mobility since my DH is almost totally housebound - gets to hospital by ambulance. He gets out once or twice a year, maybe for a trip to a film and a bite of lunch, but because he can't use public transport, he buys travel vouchers which let him travel by taxi at reduced cost. The family car, MIL being registered keeper, is used for his shopping, prescription collection etc, so is free of RFL, but his wheelchair doesn't fit in, so he can't use the car and we can't afford to upgrade to bigger one. Overall, don't judge your friends - maybe they need expensive car.

Please read the thread luckylegs et al. The OP is completely and utterly wrong.

The cost to the State/taxpayer is the same whether someone drives a Nissan micra, a BMW or indeed has no motability car & instead receives the payment

Don't worry about the poster sunseeker the OP called us 'all idiots' , so she doesn't have a problem with name calling plainly.

I have Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, l have worked hard all my life until this dreadful disease took away my ability to walk.
I now have to use a wheelchair , l have to self catheterise three times a day,
I can no longer dress or undress myself . I have lost my dignity.
I sometimes need help cutting up food it affects my breathing and swallowing.
Yes l have a mobility car l paid £1,400 towards a higher end car, why because l can't sit in a lower model and l need a vehicle that will hold my wheelchair.my PiP component is taken as payment to lease the car.
I can no longer drive so my hubby who insadentlly had give up his job to become my full time carer to which he is paid £62.00 a week, and he does not qualify for any further benefits because he has a private pension.
Yes l would give up my mobility car in a heartbeat if l could get my life back.
I'm not living I'm exsisting.
It sound to me Poly580 as though your jealous.
Just thank your lucky stars you don't need Motability
Oh and by the way the car is leased for Three years not two.

As durhamjen - The Motability scheme is wonderful. My husband was receiving the PIP as he was terminally ill. We struggled with the little Picanto and needed something we could get a wheelchair in and out easily. I have arthritis so it was a real Godsend to sign up for a Kia Venga (Approx. £18K) as I had to drive to and from hospital everyday while he had treatment. When he died Motability offered it at cost price and I bought it with his pension lump sum. There's always more to things than at first glance. Maybe your friend has a terminal illness and is enjoying life while she can?

And if you don't believe me - read this

www.motability.org.uk/3._How_the_Motability_Scheme_is_funded.pdf

I can't cut & paste but it says the purchase of the vehicles is funded by the scheme (a charity) and there is no cost to the public purse

That should be in capitals THE HIGHER MOTABILITY ALLOWANCE FOR DISABLED PEOPLE IS £58 A WEEK They can then give that up as a payment for renting a small car from one of the private hire car firms participating in the scheme. If they need a bigger car or one with more features they have to pay the difference themselves. THE TAXPAYER ONLY PAYS THE £58

That link even tells you why 'expensive' cars (which cost the State the same as cheap cars) are on the scheme and why there's a 3 year lease.

Katiemay - if your parents and in-laws don't need the winter fuel allowance they are probably receiving pensions in excess of the personal allowance and paying more tax than £200 per year. 'Rich pensioners' will be paying 'rich' tax contibutions all of their lives, and this being the case, means testing will be far more expensive to administer than just paying the universal 'benefit' In addition, VAT is payable on fuel bills so in most cases the individual's £100 will be going straight back to the treasury

My husband receives the carers allowance, but because he did not become disabled until he was 65 (statin poisioning) he cannot receive the mobility allowance. If he had been diagnosed at 64 he would have been able to have a hand operated car until death, as it is he has had to fund it all himself although he was able to buy his car and have it adapted free of VAT. This is of course a consideration, but the man opposite who is able to walk and stand properly received his car at 60 when he had a heart attack and has it changed and maintained regularly until his death. We live in a rural area and a car is essential. Because of the necessary adaptions I can't drive it and need my own, so although I don't begrudge that man his car (good luck, I say!), it would have been really good if my husband could be included in the scheme too.

Well I'm in agreement poly580 why a basic model suited to their needs isn't enough is beyond me the benefits pot will be empty by the time our grandchildren are in need of it

Read the thread Harrysgran

a basic model costs the state exactly the same as an expensive model

I have a mobility car. I am in a wheelchair and I have a Zaria so I can get my wheelchair in. It genuinely looks like for some reason probably only know to her she is not being honest. Believe me getting the mobility part is very very strict. Is your friend unable to walk very far, does she have severe mental health problems?. Without my car I would never be able to go out and do things. I would much prefer to have mobility and independence than have a mobility car. I actually feel quite offended by your post, what you should be thinking is , is your friend genuinely entitled to a mobility car? If yes , then for some reason she is being dishonest about getting that model to you if no then she is one of the thousands of people who are stopping genuine people from getting what they are entitled to.

This thread demonstrates how dangerous people like he OP are.

There have been repeated corrections throuout the thread on the OP's misunderstandings and ignorance about how the scheme works and still people are somehow coming away believing that the state is funding someone to drive around in a BMW.

It's incredibly frustrating and very unfair.

Ah but * Nezumi* the truth isn't anywhere near as exciting as the fantasy :-)

The Government does not "give away" £47K cars! It is very dangerous to report half truths and gives rise to disability hate crimes which are very very painful for us disabled folk to bear. Personally unable to walk further than to my own front door, with two badly damaged knees and a broken spine I rely on my car to get me around where public transport and my own pins can't take me. I drive a Hyundai Coupe, a rather smart sports car. It is difficult to get in and out, but I have my methods because once in it I feel as dashing as I did as a youngster. This did not prevent some yob from spitting the contents of his mouth all over my car plus all the dirty looks I get from people who think like you do. Please get your facts right before adding to the pain. Thank you.

In effect, the disabled people are loaning the car, by giving up part of their benefits.
A lot have big cars because their mobility is bad, making it difficult to manage getting in and out of a lower model.

Well of course disabled people should not have anything nice or good in their lives, should they? Maybe the abled bodied should send us all to crabbly asylums like they used to in Victorian times - or, hey, what about euthansia because disabled people are no good to anyone are they? You resent £58 per week for people who face uphill challenges every day of their lives (that is all it ever costs the taxpayer what ever car the person drives) I can think of many insults that apply to you and I am surprised you have any friends at all, especially the one you wrote about. How hurt would s/he be if they knew what a vindictive person you really are.

And another point - my other half was only 62 when he died, so did not get to pension age and didn't get to enjoy a long and happy retirement. So it was a saving to the benefits system in the long run.

This seems typical to me of scare stories about wasting tax payers money which some papers regularly run. Why are we not exercised by the fact that some disabled people have had their mobility allowance unfairly stopped whilst they are part way through a leasing contract and have been left with no car and a contract commitment? It is very common for able bodied people to lease cars with a small deposit and run far bigger/more expensive cars than they could ever afford to buy. This is apparently the most usual way to obtain a new car now and is apparently keeping the car market buoyant.

Elegran Shame on Gransnet if it is propagating this lie through their emails. It is bad enough that they let false information be the subject of an OP. Some people will believe anything if they see it written down.

Lazigirl. Exactly. People should be up in arms at the way disabled people are being treated. They have their ability to be mobile removed and then get abused for not working.

Hard times are an experience that disabled people have every day, and a decent vehicle must make such a difference to their lives. I think the government get these vehicles at a reduced rate from the manufacturers, and the vehicles are sold on to the public when handed back. I don't grudge people who struggle to live a reasonable life having a spacious car to get about in. Imagine life without a car and then add pain, a couple of sticks, severe breathlessness....not a lot of fun.

Free School Meals are not about to be abolished; they will still be available for families who need them by completing one simple form. Schools are not about to demolish their kitchens and sack the catering staff!
The latest decision simply means that the taxpayer isn't buying a lunch every day for children whose parents could afford the fairly reasonable sum for a meal that they could not produce at home for the same money. If parents don't want to pay for a hot meal they can send the child with a healthy packed lunch (which will probably cost the same!) and the family can eat a cooked meal together in the evening. I feel very strongly that it is a parents duty to feed their child, not the state, unless they have fallen on hard times.

Pensioners will not freeze to death - those on a low income will still get their heating allowance. It's a bit silly to hand it out so freely when the Queen, Richard Branson, Mick Jagger and so on now qualify. Sense? I don't think so, and I speak as one who may well not qualify now as we have both saved very hard for a private pension.

As to drugs and the NHS - there are too many of us, living too long, and the money can only go so far. If we all pay more there will be more services available. This is simple economics, obvious even to me, but a survey recently, shown in our region on the local news, put this to people who agreed they wanted better services. Most of them accepted the simple facts but when asked if they were willing to pay a little more National Insurance every month most of them were not. No doubt they will be voting for Corbyn and his wonderful scheme which is going to fund the country and everything in it with a modest increase in tax for the 5% of top earners.

So Mr Poly has worked for Jaguar Land Rover for 40 odd years and the OP and Mr Poly each own a top of the range gas-guzzler. Might I ask if these cars were heavily discounted when they were acquired?

What a disingenuous and mean-spirited post. And now she's flounced off in a huff because other posters have put her right.