Crazy benefits system need an overhaul

Marieelez please educate yourself

The DWP estimate of fraud rate for DLA was 0.5%. I know many people with notability cars - none who don't need that scar.

And the cost of the car makes no difference to the cost to the State!

Why can people not understand this really simple fact. It makes no difference to anyone's finances except those of the disabled person if they drive around in a cheap or expensive car.

I think the PO here is saying that people who work cannot afford cars like this. We all know people who have Disability Cars and don't really need them. Walk with a stick which, when convenient, can be dispensed with. I know this will cause a lot of you to shout. The minute anything is cut back and say the choice of vehicle was reduced. There would be a hue and cry from a certain group. Someone has to pay for this and it is the ordinary working person.

My daughter is disabled and works full time. She qualifies for the Motobility Scheme and does have a car - without it she would not be able to get to her job and would have to stop working. She is a single mother (not from choice, ex son in law walked out) and she works hard to provide for my three grandchildren. She has to use the money she was awarded for her lack of mobility to pay monthly for the car. She also had to find the deposit needed. Believe me, she would much rather be fully mobile than need to go through all the hoops needed to prove she is disabled, it isn't easy. I remember the old single seater disabled cars - yes, they certainly were a boon at the time given that there was nothing before them but my daughter has to do the school run with three children (born before she became disabled before anyone says she shouldn't have had children)- a single seater vehicle would not be of any use to her. She also needs space for her wheelchair and her crutches. People who use the Motobility Scheme did not set it up - the cars are heavily discounted (just like for any business) and have to be returned (or purchased at market value) if you no longer qualify or the lease term expires..

Sad to see a lot of ad hominem insults in this thread. Whilst there are many who find the Motability scheme a great boon, and of course, almost all would rather be able-bodied, there are 'users' and charlatans out there. There is one person in my extended family who has Borderline Personality Disorder. She is about to get her third Motability vehicle. Every time a clinician challenges her, she threatens suicide and makes formal complaints, so always gets what she wants. It is not good for her, and she ends up making ever greater demands, but no-one dares to call her on it. She is not alone; she belongs to on-line groups for 'borderliners' who share tips on this very thing. She has shown us these and when my late husband asked if she thought the world owed her a living, she said "yes". The question is, is a very expensive car a suitable treatment for a personality disorder? If you think this is rare, this young woman has been described as being at the extreme end, but BPD is diagnosed in 1% of the population, and if you add to that people who are simply dishonest and selfish, we have a problem which takes money away from people who are genuinely disabled.

sarahellenwhitney

1) She PAYS for her car. It's not free!
2) 'They obviously know something I don't.' Yeah you're right there.
3) Her illness is none of your business.

GAD what is it with this denigration of disabled people?

The DWP estimated the fraud rate for DLA to be 0.5% The idea that there are thousands of people swanning around in notability cars because they pretended to have a limp is simply wrong.

Poly580. It makes me so angry when people as ignorant as you clearly are go spouting forth on a subject which they know nothing about. Having just spent the last months fighting and dealing with morons at the DWP to get the pittance my Husband is entitled to, having spoken with many disabled people in relation to the book I am writing, hearing truly heartbreaking stories,then to see your ignorant post. Well words fail me. At least any appropriate to put on here. Shame on you!!

durhamjen I have no issue in those who have reduced quality of life obtaining the benefits and means to give them a quality of life enjoyed by the able bodied.
I am not alone however in witnessing those who milk the system left right and centre and give a bad name to those who need help.
I have, two doors away from me. a perfect example of a 'milker'.A young woman maybe late twenties early thirties with a state benefit car, allegedly has a 'bone problem' can't recall the medical name , has produced three kids?? no difficulty there.No idea of the father and now has another guy with no doubt another sprog on the way. She looks pretty active to me bellowing at the kids and no hardship walking up the road when needs be to fetch the kids in.How do they get away with it.?They obviously know something I don't and appear to be getting away with it.

I can't credit that anyone can believe it wrong that their acquaintance has a car under the Motability Scheme now it has been so clearly explained by those above. It is NOT easy to qualify for a car under this scheme and the choice is limited by the nature of the disability. Many deserving people have already lost their cars because the requirements to qualify for the scheme have become much more restrictive recently.
I'm sure there must have been some misunderstanding or exaggeration during the conversation which prompted the original post.

And another thing, how much has the British government ploughed into JLR to keep Mr Poly (and thousands of other workers) in a job? That's taxpayers' money BTW.

Sorry more accurately you can't put a first claim in (although you can convert from DLA to PIP after 65 providing DLA was claimed before turning 65). Think that is right.

You can claim PIP as a pensioner providing you started to claim before 65. You can't put a claim in after turning 65.

I should add cars being handed back is causing a lot of problems for many.

Disability benefits have the lowest rate of fraud for any benefit - (very low) - and yet somehow disabled people have come to be seen as scroungers or the Ines bringing the country to its knees (many actual economists would argue Tory austerity is doing a good job of destroying the economy itself).

The rise in hate crime towards the most vulnerable is very worrying. And ignorant and incorrect believes such as those seen presented as fact by some on this thread is in part to blame.

Does PIP apply to pensioners?

Sounds from what you are saying your friend was exaggerating.

My husband bought a 2nd hand Volkswagen Golf that had been a mobility car. It was very basic but had plenty of space for wheelchairs etc and would not be that price new.

Majorcagirl - he may be able to drive and not walk?

The threashold for receiving enhanced rate PIP is very high and requires a lot of evidence. It really isn't a case of being a little bit ill and getting one.

Higher rate mobility DLA had a lower threshold which is why so many cars are being handed back each week.

It used to be something like a 22% discount on the price of a jag for employees...but that was a few years ago....but good point Cleo

Rosina - the motability scheme costs the government nothing. They are not involved in purchasing any cars.

Here for the facts: www.motability.org.uk/3._How_the_Motability_Scheme_is_funded.pdf

Mobility has a cost to the State - but it's exactly the same cost whether or not someone uses the matobility scheme

I agree with all that has been said about the need for mobility cars. However I do think that sometimes the benefit is being abused. A friend of mine had a mobility car, a Passat. Neither of them had visible disabiliteis, but the husband had a heart problem so the car was justified. However, when the car arrived one of the first things they did was to book a holiday in france, with the husband ( with the heart condition) driving all the way to southern france and back!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.