Ok I’ll try and go over everything mentioned.
When I checked with motability previously, which would have been years back I was always informed that the question was whether the car was used reasonably and for the majority if time toward the aid of the disabled person. If you look online now even, as I had been doing during my research recentley, this was the opinion of numerous people so they were obviously saying the same thing to them. This it would seem has now changed and if I did sign something which stated otherwise I didn’t see it. Ignorance is no excuse but again, if this was the case back then I had no idea and motability were clearly more lenient with their guidelines. Given the breaching of the leases must be becoming more common place it would appear everything is being tightened up and that has naturally led to the inclusion of things like trackers. With that said I still stand firm on the fact that me having the car with me is of primary benefit to the disabled person. I am the only person who can drive the car and the only person nominated to do so.
On that note funnily enough today motability have essentially agreed with me. They’ve informed me that as long as the majority of my journeys are of primary benefit to my mother, which they are, then no issue should ever be flagged up. They’ve told me to continue with the new order and if a problem is considered to be found and the car is being used outside of their guidelines then they will then refund me the deposit in full. Apparently an issue will only be flagged on the system and questioned when the vehicle itself is not visiting my mothers house the ‘majorety’ of the time.
Motability telling me this though doesn’t fill me with confidence that motability will trust me to use the vehicle appropriately though as on other forums and threads I have seen people saying even the slightest journey is often questioned.
To suggest the fact I don’t want a tracker fitted into my car shows misuse is simply wrong. Firstly my mother and myself were quite offended by such notion initially but eventually came to consider the good that could come of such a thing in the event of genuine misuse. It is very easy to accuse me of misusing the vehicle and I considered that might happen but in reality you have no idea how we use the car. I’d say roughly 50% of the time I will be with my mother in the car, the other 30% of the time I’ll be doing something for her and maybe 20% of the time answering to her and performing tasks for her as a secondary objective to something else.
My issue is how can I care for her with use of the car if I can’t keep it with me when she’s not there and no one else is able to drive it? It isn’t feasible really and wouldn’t be for a lot of people who could and, I think, probably should benefit from motability.
In terms of buying a car I simply cannot afford the extra cost. I have no spare income as it stands currently so that is simply out of the question. Remember I am an unpaid carer but have no extra time to work because that’s the way carers allowance works. Also keep in mind that as a student the only aid I get is council tax relief. Prescriptions, dentists, we have to pay the lot. It’s made me attempting to better myself near impossible but I wont get into the joke that is carers rights.
I’m going ahead with the new order and we’ll see where we get after that. Motability definitely have sympathy with my situation.
Me being accused of misusing the vehicle as an unpaid carer is about what I expected and I was surprised at how lovely people were being lol.
What I think needs to happen personally is that another criteria needs to exist for primary sole carers within motability. If someone else had access to this vehicle who was willing to care for my mum then there wouldn’t be an issue and I could be comfortable knowing my mum had support there and someone with a way to access her and transport her places.
I think within the criteria of sole primary carers there should only be one allowed nominated driver and they should be able to keep the vehicle with them in specific situations. No one else should be allowed access to vehicle other than the disabled person themselves.
Motability informed me that they allow carers to have holidays and rests where appropriate so this is something I can consider when using the vehicle. As noted earlier in the thread some carers are allowed to go and see friends providing that the driver can get back to the person disabled. Motability themselves stated it. There are clearly already exceptions in place and all I am asking is for them to see reason in my particular situation as all I am trying to do is better myself whilst caring for my mother.
To say one is misusing or abusing a system by simply requesting motability to see realistic reason isn’t right at all imo.
Now, in regards to me not wanting a tracker fitted and stating that it shows misuse… firstly can you imagine how a tracker makes me as a carer and my mum feel? Someone checking up to make sure we’re not breaching the contract whenever they might feel my mums not benefiting from journeys? How can they possibly make that call if they have no idea what I’m doing specifically and only what road I’m on? How do they know what I’m doing is or isn’t to her benefit? It feels like a massive invasion of privacy and I’d argue it potentially goes against human rights, specifically the right to private and family life under article 8.
Motability apparently base the correct use of tracking upon me visiting my mums house. Another issue here is that they are assuming that disabled people are confined to their home when not in the vehicle. That’s a massive assumption. What if a disabled person had travelled via other means to their friends or to a location regularly and were then picked up from the nominated driver from that location. That would likely lead to calls to the driver with motability being suspicious of misuse which isn’t right at all.
Also what is to stop someone from simply walking into disabled persons house in the morning, or even just parking outside and then flying off and doing whatever they like. That would be blatant misuse but motability couldn’t prove whether the person with the disability had been with them the whole day or otherwise. It seems unenforceable. This was the point I made to them when stating that that it seems unjust and incorrect to place trackers in disabled peoples car.
Some people will of course be completely breaching the terms of contract with motability and misusing the vehicle but to then track all those with carers living at another address seems terrible I think.
From an ethical stand point it’s questionable imo.
Also, yeah with maths I am terrible, I’ll admit. That said my mum is paid all of her benefits every four weeks, as opposed to monthly, so you’ll forgive me for working it out this way.
Again I appreciate all of the thoughts and comments and I know you all mean well whether to me directly, to motability or to both. I can absolutely assure you if I start to get phone calls saying that I’m deemed to be misusing the vehicle and nothing can be worked out I’ll send it straight back. I wouldn’t make myself and my mother feel like some kind of criminals or abusers of a charity for anything in the world and certainly not for a car, even if it is a god send of sorts.
Also, I’ll have a look into the add petrol thing. Thank you!