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Daily Mail article bashing Motability:
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I think it might be best for all our mental well being if we don’t post/read Daily Mail articles. I didn’t clink the link but assume it’s another hateful article.
blah, blah, blah
I wondered how long it would be after that knobend put the video out recently telling the world how disabled nan’s could be driving powerful 0to60 in 3.0secs cars.
Whilst not in any way the fault of Motability, this was an inevitable outcome when things like anxiety and depression started to be classified as disabilities, rather than health conditions, thus triggering PIP which, in turn, makes such people eligible for the Motability scheme.
The current government is going to start clamping down on disability benefits, but the horse has already bolted. It will be extremely difficult to reverse that decision.
I just hope that Motability don’t deal with this in the same way as they did last time that the Daily Mail ran a similar article. Rather than correct all the garbage and half truths in the article and explain how the scheme really works, they took an axe to the scheme and it has never recovered from it. It started the prolonged cull in choice from over 5,000 cars to the less than 1,000 that we have today.
Goes back to the 90s with Peter Lilley with his Tory speech little list and continues to this day they have to blame somebody lets attack the weak it is like a form of bullying. Todays news paper the Daily Star has the opposite in 3 years £30000 has been spent on driving tests for Asylum Seekers that have been assessed to stay on driving tests.I also wonder about the attack on sick and disabled costs that are not as much as illegal immigrants that are still piling into this country in putting them up but that’s ok according to gov lets punish the easy target instead totally insane.
Labour peer John Mann said ‘
’I also question why it is necessary for its customers to change to a new vehicle so regularly. Cars last a long time and the whole point of Motability must be to help people live a normal life. Three years per car is too short a time-frame.’
Looks like lease extensions are back in the cards.
Labour peer John Mann said ‘ ’I also question why it is necessary for its customers to change to a new vehicle so regularly. Cars last a long time and the whole point of Motability must be to help people live a normal life. Three years per car is too short a time-frame.’ Looks like lease extensions are back in the cards.
John Mann likes the sound of his own voice, but thankfully he doesn’t carry as much clout as he thinks he does. He huffed and puffed when there was an inquiry into Motability a few years ago and nothing changed as a result.
Whilst voluntary lease extensions are fine, it would be difficult to force the imposition of longer leases (which I think is what he is proposing). The ability to order a new car every 3 years is one of the major benefits of the scheme. Longer leases would make the scheme less attractive to a lot of customers and would be a tipping point for many to look outside of the scheme.
Several recent articles on the scheme, including this one, seem obsessed about the 0-60 times of some EVs. Perhaps the authors of these articles should read this forum more often, where they’d find far more conversations from EV drivers about pootling along at 56mph with all the HGVs whilst having the heating off, in order to conserve range 😂
Unless you have a limp the great unwashed think you don’t deserve a Motability car…although they would be happy if you got an old Invacar. It’s all borne out of jealousy.
The thing is, if all we could get were Invacars we would spend the PIP money on buying and running our own cars. The taxpayer would still be spending exactly the same amount on disability benefits. It’s all a jealousy thing. They want a shiny new car but would they want the disability or longterm illness that goes along with it?
There’s no chance in hell I’m clicking on the link.
Unless someone is good enough to copy and paste, the assumption is that this is another hate filled article pointing out the unfairness of a select group of people extrapolated to the whole of Motability’s customers to the point where we’re all scrounging losers. Am I close?
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
I really hate posts like this. There’s enough scaremongering everywhere else without having to see it on here as well!
There’s no chance in hell I’m clicking on the link. Unless someone is good enough to copy and paste, the assumption is that this is another hate filled article pointing out the unfairness of a select group of people extrapolated to the whole of Motability’s customers to the point where we’re all scrounging losers. Am I close?
You’re pretty close with that summary! A couple of fraudulent cases were thrown in to emphasise the point, including one couple who apparently had a ‘Ford transit van’ on the scheme (are they even available?).
Unfortunately, this won’t be the last. Whilst the governments declared drive to get many people who are on benefits into work (wherever possible) is long overdue, this is creating an anti-disabled dialogue of which Motability is an easy target.
I really hate posts like this. There’s enough scaremongering everywhere else without having to see it on here as well!
Thanks @Glos_Guy.
This is exactly what the problem is. With a lot going around about the bill for those unable to work there’s a lot of very worried people looking for any news putting detail around what’s a very worrying direction. Motability is a very obvious target for the lazy reporter trying to make a name for themselves.
There’s already a considerable number of people who have genuine claims that have had to fight hard to get the support they deserve who are now worried about losing that support as a money saving measure.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
John Mann’s wife is Labour MP Jo White. She’s one of the MP’s who put their name to the letter against disability benefits. She only got in as an MP due to the vote split between Reform and the Tories. He sits in the House Of Lords getting his £300 a day for doing nothing. He did nothing for the local area when he was an MP and She’s had her nose in the trough since day one and gone back on everything she promised. She’s hated already around here.
John Mann’s wife is Labour MP Jo White. She’s one of the MP’s who put their name to the letter against disability benefits. She only got in as an MP due to the vote split between Reform and the Tories. He sits in the House Of Lords getting his £300 a day for doing nothing. He did nothing for the local area when he was an MP and She’s had her nose in the trough since day one and gone back on everything she promised. She’s hated already around here.
Interesting and doesn’t surprise me. Labour MPs are always steadfastly against the House of Lords – until they are offered it themselves, when they embrace it (and the lucrative allowances) with open arms 🤔
Also a article in The telegraph
PIP is squarely in the Work and Pensions Secretary’s sights. The benefit, which is not means-tested, is available to help with extra living costs for people who claim to suffer from a range of ailments, including both mental and physical ill-health. At the highest rate the benefit can be worth nearly £800 a month.
Meanwhile, many Labour ministers have become alarmed at the ease with which PIP recipients can buy cars on the public purse using the Motability scheme.
“Anyone in government who is even vaguely involved in public policy is now familiar with the Motability issue”, a senior Cabinet source said, indicating that it is one of a number of areas due for a crackdown.
Some 20 per cent of new car sales in Britain are now made under the Government’s Motability scheme in an emerging scandal.
The scheme was originally founded in the 1970s but its use has ballooned in recent years, with state-of-the-art BMWs now available via Motability.
Under the scheme, PIP recipients claiming mobility issues can make a down payment on a new car and then get the government to pay the lease.
A new car is made available every three years, while insurance, accident breakdown, servicing, tyre replacements and paint options are covered by the state.
Motability’s growing popularity
You can understand some of the bad feedback, we have an estate across from us viewed from the street the houses are gardens are in a terrible mess and there stand a brand new top of the range mobility car, new cars in the mobility bays the owner put up the badges and walk away and come back with shopping bags with ease.
The general public does not really understand disability, I know I did not until I became disabled, there are those who abuse the system we have all witness and seen it, the downside is bad publicity and resentment towards disabled people.
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally say the wrong thing.
Most of the press are reporting today that the ‘proposed’ freeze to benefits won’t now happen. I never thought that it would tbh, as I think the increase is only due to be 1.7% and it would have been seen as very mean spirited.
Of course, Motability customers won’t see any increase in the Mobility component anyway, as it goes to the scheme, not the customer, but two-thirds of those eligible to join the scheme choose not to and do something else with their benefits (such as running a second hand car), so those folk will hopefully now get a tiny increase.
The Telegraph is also reporting that face-to-face assessments for PIP are down from 80% of claimants pre pandemic to less than 2% now. That’s clearly wrong and leaves the system open to abuse, so I suspect that will be a major area that will be tightened up. Commentary is suggesting that things such as ADHD are in the crosshairs as being the sort of thing that shouldn’t qualify for PIP.
To be fair, it’s difficult to see how ADHD alone gets you higher rate mobility. I live with 2 with ADHD one combined with autism and it’s not enough to get them PIP. However, the comorbidities can make it quite easy to qualify once you look at needing a supporting escort to go anywhere.
This is, I believe, where simple concepts have been misrepresented. Nobody has just ADHD and gets any help, there’s always something with it. Could they possibly understand the complexity of adding in stress and anxiety. There’s even physical issues that come with neurodivergence that can be crippling but I very much doubt anyone in government or the media have the expertise to remotely understand all this.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Excellent point @MFillingham I also have a close family member with ADHD, but works in a very high pressure job and wouldn’t dream of applying for benefits or call themselves disabled.
I suspect that there are two issues being conflated. The re-classification of health conditions such as anxiety and depression as ‘disabilities’ in their own right seems to be being challenged, but there has been a lot of commentary lately about the huge increase in ADHD in this country since the pandemic, a condition that apparently isn’t even recognised in France!
Personally, I never agreed with the widening of the definition of ‘disability’ to include health conditions that are part and parcel of the stresses of life, some of which are best solved by having the purpose in life that comes from having a job, and the inevitable result of this is now playing out, in that all those on PIP are now being labelled as scroungers and the Motability scheme becomes a very easy target for the ill informed to vent at.
I agree completely, while anxiety can be crippling, in its own right it’s a health condition that can be cured with the right treatment. My daughter has crippling anxiety and really struggles to leave her bedroom on a bad day but on its own it’s not a disability. However, it’s a comorbidity with Autism and ADHD for her, which means that while treatment and counselling will help her cope it will be a factor in the rest of her life, just to a lesser extent once she has sufficient coping strategies.
Mental health is a disability only because the health service can’t cope with the demand, so conditions are untreated for far too long and become embedded and significantly harder to treat. Even if suitably experienced professionals appeared from nowhere right now, it’ll be a few years before the current situation improves significantly. I guess that’s where it does become a long term condition rather than a disability.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Our son in law and daughter own and run a gym, the son in law is also a full time fireman, they have 2 children, they are no means wealthy occasionally we have to help. A local lady on the online media constantly brags about here holidays abroad and is away most weekends, she has a son with autism, has a newish housing association house a a new Motability EV, she puts this all on line.
With people rubbing it people faces on social media you can understand why people are becoming frustrated.
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally say the wrong thing.
Our son in law and daughter own and run a gym, the son in law is also a full time fireman, they have 2 children, they are no means wealthy occasionally we have to help. A local lady on the online media constantly brags about here holidays abroad and is away most weekends, she has a son with autism, has a newish housing association house a a new Motability EV, she puts this all on line. With people rubbing it people faces on social media you can understand why people are becoming frustrated.
Thats just disgraceful. It’s these people who really are the cause of a lot of problems for those genuinely struggling. There are plenty who get what they need and just about get on in life, there are plenty who get everything they are entitled to and still need support from the likes of food banks. Having just a few individuals living the life of luxury and bragging about it just makes it so much harder for everyone else.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Bound to happen, Just recently we’ve had Motability tighten the purse strings rather abruptly as they were seemingly handing out grants and allowing terminations to get the new shiny far to easily so they have made a rod for their own back
Equally i’d wager most of us are happy with our current car and changing every 3 years is a faff (so i would agree with John Mann MP) however Motability have to make the maths work resale values etc
I’m no fan of the Daily Mail but when it ran its campaign re Range Rovers on Motabilty they were quite correct. None of us needs a Range Rover
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