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Called motability & just been told they won’t consider fuel type when awarding a grant so even tho I told them it has to be an EV due to running costs they essentially told me go have a “cheap” Qashqai instead even if that basically means I can’t afford to drive it.
Also heated seats & steering wheel aren’t a consideration for disability, you can go buy a heated seat cover from halfords (they’re garbage ive had them before filling collapses & you end up sitting on the element).
Wow seriously shot me down in flames there. The answer seems to be if you need a grant here’s a cheap petrol now get lost.
Seems to be if you can’t afford the AP & you actually want an EV then you need to go get a loan or credit card. I wasn’t expecting much tbh I wasn’t expecting to be able to say I want x but I was expecting better than that.
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Apologies I didn’t actually mean to swear should have been shot.
It’s not so much the money what they’re prepared to offer it’s that they decide to rule out certain features without even asking why they’re not a luxury, for me a heated wheel isn’t a luxury because I have bad circulation my hands go very cold when held at chest height & then get very painful, had a bad break on my index finger at 18, industrial accident & that finger goes purple when cold & hurts like Hell.
Not to mention heated/cooled seats when you have poor body temp control all they care bout was can you put a mobility scooter in the boot & can you get in/out, literally nothing else considered, again seems crazy, electric adjustable seats again not taken into account for a grant regardless of if you need them eg you can’t turn the seat adjusters. The whole thing just seems really really bizarre & the attitude I got today on the phone has really made me reconsider if I want to join the scheme at all. Felt like I was phoning the dwp.
I certainly wasn’t told that I could add to it nor that they’d allow me to use it for any car & put up the rest she basically said to me you can have a qashqai or that’s it. I know I’m not great on the phone but when their advice is go buy crap from halfords that’s really horrible advice. Didn’t even ask what the health problems are.
To also say that you get no say in fuel choice of you ask for a grant, so the grants team would rather a car sit parked because you can’t afford to fuel it than to let you “choose”. It just feels like the vast majority of the money that gets paid ie our pip counts for nothing.
Dunno maybe I was just unlucky with who I spoke to but I certainly don’t feel like calling again to find out, wish I could borrow the money off relatives but dad’s dead & mums up her eyeballs with Foster kids, social workers etc so.
Hi Richard
Sorry to hear of your problem and I myself have pondered on going for a grant, mostly to help pay for the extra I have to fork out on having to drive an automatic because of my disability and now 12 years into Motability cars, having the need for large MPV / SUV to carry a scooter without dismantling it to get it into the boot with the help of a hoist.
The cross referencing you’ve mentioned is one of the things that has put me off going down the grants road in the past and thankfully I think I can avoid it on my next car but things like this make me just think I’d just carry on struggling regardless as I don’t want to have to beg for help anyway, nobody does. What’s next a bright lamp in your face or maybe a blind fold while they drip water on your head.
Like you’ve said, how do they know what is a help to you and taking your mention of the heated steering wheel is something I got in my current car and having to drive one cold handed has been a bigger help to me than the heated seats I’ve got but its something I never knew would be such a help to me until I had it, that said, more than likely my next car won’t have the heated steering wheel as I’ve got lots of other things to put before it and I haven’t been encourage to go for a grant having read your thread. Not only that but there are particular cars I’m at ease with when driving being a disabled driver and being told that maybe that particular car is too expensive and to make do with something else would have me driving around for 3 years with something I loath and I’m not happy with.
Like I said I hope to finance my next car without help because my wife has money coming to her this Summer so we will survive and by the sounds of it, it’s just as well.
Only thing I can suggest for you is to try again in a week or so or sit down and write a letter about how you feel and what your needs are then send it to them on their contact us page, that’s how I’ve communicated with them I the past, and then there forewarned of your problems before they call you.
Hi Chris
I’m sorry if my thread has further put you off, I was so pee’d off I needed to vent, didn’t ask what my health issues were, didn’t ask what I feel I need etc they did say their systems were down so maybe they were short because they were stressed? Dunno tbh I’m just considering going without & going for the MG for £199 or going to provident & borrowing £399 for the Kona & then suffering without knowing that when it’s really cold in winter I’ll have to think about whether to go out or not. Then ensure I’ve saved enough over 3 years with the gcb for the next time.
Worked out ill save over £300 not insuring the wife on L plates too so it all adds up.
It doesn’t help right now as I’m just feeling really depressed too, no particular reason but that’s the way it is eh? Feeling like that & getting poo’d on from motability today didn’t help matters. Felt like they were minimising all my issues & saying nope your only issues are boot size, vehicle height & auto we don’t consider anything else.
Telling soneone to buy those shitty heated seat cushions from halfords too, felt like I was talking to frigging Atos or the dwp or a Tory MP not an organisation that solely exists to HELP.
I had a similar experience years ago.
I honestly think its a tick box thing for government pat on the back and criteria
I wanted to get a mini van to put my scooter in with a ramp, Its not like i wanted a top spec car
Since then i put some money aside as well as get a 0% credit card . I cant go much higher than £999
The sad thing is they are sitting on a pile of cash and they still charge lots for AP, Being the only game in town, they have the customer over a barrel
JP
Yup bit like private schools offering scholarships in return for charity status (don’t get me started). Yup given they’re sitting on a pile of hie many billions was it?
I wouldn’t have minded a no here’s why but to be told parts you REQUIRE aren’t eligible for consideration without asking what your disabilities are is top level discrimination imho. I don’t like to throw the D word about but quite frankly lumping all disabled people into one homogeneous group is discriminatory, pure & simple.
Going to try again today & if I get the same answers I’m going to ask for that in writing & a copy of the phone call recording (calls are recorded for x purpose) & kick up a huge stink over it.
Richard i had a disheartening experience with the grants team also. Ive seen people say they have been granted 2,3,4000+ and they were reluctant to give me £750 for a car with a smaller boot which was unsuitable for wheelchair. Plus it took 3 months for them to get back to me
It was hard work for me,applied beggining of Feb and was all sorted early April.
If your physical “need” fits the bill (criteria) to what the grants team work with,they will do all they can to help.
I never actually spoke with my “alloted” case manager as she was never able to take my calls due to one thing or another.
But the last lady i spoke with actually was very good and got the ball rolling and finalised very quickly and to my complete satisfaction a suitable car with all the features i asked for,automatic,electric/heated seats,heated steering wheel,power tailgate,reverse sensors/camera.
@Richard if you’re thinking of an auto MG I would urge you to get a long unaccompanied test drive as I found the gear box possibly the worst auto I’ve ever driven, I love the car and can luckily drive a manual.
I don’t recommend an MG. I had the top of the range ZS auto, 29 mpg and the suspension was diabolical, it was like driving on square wheels. Also when the air con was on it sounded like an old air compressor.
Well I drove both MG EVs yesterday & they were brilliant maybe different setup for the EV. The ZS edged it over the 5 for us.
We live rural coastal in North Norfolk & luckily the dealer is nearby so spent a good while driving down single track lanes full of potholes. Yes it was harder than my Grand Voyager but hardly surprising given its American 16 years old with 170,000 miles on the clock ? plus that was a £50k luxury mpv when new
It was so sunny yesterday the cars were like greenhouses so had the aircon on & just sounded like any other car blower tbh.
Not saying you’re wrong but if you had an ICE maybe that was the difference? Or maybe you got a bad one? I had a 99 Ford Focus that was truly awful had so many faults from new, luckily was a company car.
At least with the mg I don’t have to speak to motability again & be made to feel like Oliver Twist, please sir can I have some more? Going to look at the Kona this morning if that’s big enough I’ll test drive one if not we order the MG ZS EV for £199
Just to add Nissan & MG (same dealer) are the only dealerships within 30 miles, well there’s a tiny VW one 12 miles away but they don’t have many cars in stock to look at, no id3 for example.
When I asked for help in late 2018 for towards a Citroen Berlingo Automatic or C3 Aircross Automatic I didn’t even get to speak to anyone in Grants they basically said you can get a Citroen C1 for Nil Deposit. That did make me laugh.
I even said why don’t you let me keep my 2014 C3 Picasso For a 6th year I’m not paying any less for it so they still be doing alright out of it they said no.
but then I saw someone else had a grant for a C3 Aircross Automatic
I ended up with a 2019 C4 Cactus afterwards
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Well I’ve complained, filled in their online complaints form, accused them of discrimination (I hate using that word) but saying we’ll only consider vehicle height, boot Suze, family size & transmission is discrimination there’s loads more reasons you coukd need a particular thing.</p>
To be told go to halfords & buy a heated cushion is a joke, that’s almost like telling someone depressed to just cheer up.Anyway let’s see what happens next…
There have actually been people that have left the scheme after they decided they would not put all the reserves back to the scheme making it easier to get a grant or APs dropped but know, the scheme that was setup to help disabled people be mobile and paid for by disabled motorists decided with their excess to give none back, its why my next change will probably be my last to a electric and then I am just buying it outright after 5 years. Things like this really put a bee in my bonnet everytime a read it, it makes me want to shout at motability operations and say WTF let him choose what he WANTS… WE HAVE ENOUGH CHOICES TAKEN AWAY FROM US AS IT IS>>> STOP ADDING MORE RESTRICTIONS BECAUSE WE NEED HELP FROM YOU AND TELLING US WHAT WE CAN AND CANT DO!!!!!!!!!
I think you only have to research the backers behind Motability to see that there’s more to it than helping disabled people. I’d love to know how many disabled people are on the board for example.
I’m not letting this go, I’m furious after that call, if they don’t reply favourably to the complaint I’ll be getting a recording of the call & sending to media, my MP & more.
A Freedom if information request will go in too asking for how they decide the criteria for grants. I wasn’t only asking for a little mot thousands, if they’d offered the £199 for the MG I’d have been pleased.
Well said @Rico ! I think this next car I get hopefully in July will be my last manual as I’m starting to have trouble with my left side due to spinal problems, but I can manage a manual at the moment and will be able to for my lease length (I do prefere manual) anyway what I’m saying is I would like to ask next time for help to get a automatic SUV as we need the size for various reasons which I will tell them about, hopefully they say yes , as to be honest I’m not in a position to manage an ap
Richard I am finding your posting a little strange, you are mentioning you inquired about a grant for a EV because you could not afford the fuel etc, but now in another post you are keeping your other car for towing, which I assume will require insurance, road tax (you car only have tax exemption on one car) MOT and general servicing and running cost not forgetting fuel ? but you are ridiculing the scheme and claiming poverty
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.
Sigh, bit rude tbh think we get enough grief from others without casting aspersions here too.
I’m using over £200 a month in diesel & just spent £1000 on mot repairs (money that I didn’t have btw before anyone decides to start claiming I’m rolling in it) the reason I was asking for help for an EV is because I can’t afford to run the car every day. I need to keep it for occasional use for when I need more than 4 people in the car, taking the dogs out as don’t want to put them in a new car & for towing if we ever go on holiday again. The point is I calculated I can go from over £200 a month in diesel to around £30 a month.
I’m on means tested benefits I’m not rolling in it, we live 30 miles from nearest proper shops in a rural location so now you can imagine the distances required
The insurance is £200 a year paid monthly btw & road tax is obviously nothing how is that implying I’m wealthy & mot worthy of a little help? I’m a bit confused how you worked that out from what’s been said? It’s a 2005 car with 170,000 miles & a big dent in the front
When have I ridiculed the scheme once? I haven’t at all. The scheme has its obvious flaws like high APs etc as most agree. I didn’t ridicule at all what I said was that choosing suitability of a car for someone solely based on vehicle height, boot size, transmission & family is possibly discrimination as disability needs are vast & solely vetting by that is really wrong, telling someone to go buy a car seat from halfords is wrong.
As I’m sure you are aware the grants side is a separate “company” so talking about that isn’t even part of the scheme so again not ridiculing it & not ridiculing the grants side – raising valid concerns is not ridiculing I’m again a bit perplexed at that choice of word tbh too.
Im a bit saddened that rather than look at the issue raised, the unsuitability of how grants decide what you’re allowed as others have agreed adding their own stories so it’s not just me making this up, you decide to imply that I’ve got too much money & I’m trying to game them for thousands (BTW I asked for £399 towards a Kona)
She didn’t ask my disability, she didn’t even ask my name. THAT was the issue I had as I stated many times previously.
No one else here seems confused by any of this, well those that have replied here & on other threads.
I have helped people through grant applications for a while, the last one was for a WAV for their severely disabled child. The process was lengthy, over six months, four demonstrations over that period and a visit from one of motability’s own external accessors.
This is so different from years ago. Speaking to the demonstrators from the wav companies is interesting as they do a lot of the groundwork for the grants team as they face to face with the customer. There is more requests going in for grants than ever before and as a result they need to be tougher with who and how they help.Sigh, bit rude tbh think we get enough grief from others without casting aspersions here too. I’m using over £200 a month in diesel & just spent £1000 on mot repairs (money that I didn’t have btw before anyone decides to start claiming I’m rolling in it) the reason I was asking for help for an EV is because I can’t afford to run the car every day. I need to keep it for occasional use for when I need more than 4 people in the car, taking the dogs out as don’t want to put them in a new car & for towing if we ever go on holiday again. The point is I calculated I can go from over £200 a month in diesel to around £30 a month. I’m on means tested benefits I’m not rolling in it, we live 30 miles from nearest proper shops in a rural location so now you can imagine the distances required The insurance is £200 a year paid monthly btw & road tax is obviously nothing how is that implying I’m wealthy & mot worthy of a little help? I’m a bit confused how you worked that out from what’s been said? It’s a 2005 car with 170,000 miles & a big dent in the front When have I ridiculed the scheme once? I haven’t at all. The scheme has its obvious flaws like high APs etc as most agree. I didn’t ridicule at all what I said was that choosing suitability of a car for someone solely based on vehicle height, boot size, transmission & family is possibly discrimination as disability needs are vast & solely vetting by that is really wrong, telling someone to go buy a car seat from halfords is wrong. As I’m sure you are aware the grants side is a separate “company” so talking about that isn’t even part of the scheme so again not ridiculing it & not ridiculing the grants side – raising valid concerns is not ridiculing I’m again a bit perplexed at that choice of word tbh too. Im a bit saddened that rather than look at the issue raised, the unsuitability of how grants decide what you’re allowed as others have agreed adding their own stories so it’s not just me making this up, you decide to imply that I’ve got too much money & I’m trying to game them for thousands (BTW I asked for £399 towards a Kona) She didn’t ask my disability, she didn’t even ask my name. THAT was the issue I had as I stated many times previously. No one else here seems confused by any of this, well those that have replied here & on other threads.
I can understand you frustration we are all disabled and in the same boat, your old car is an uneconomical dinosaur, it is costing you a fortune to run, as wmcforum has pointed out the grant scheme has to be accountable and meet a strict criteria, the accountable.
Can I make a suggestion have a look at the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross Dynamic both the manual and Automatic are Zero AP, they will serve probably most of your needs, your towing, carrying 4 people and save you an absolute fortune in fuel costs compared to your old car. Heated seats, unfortunately no heated steering wheel.
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.
I must be one of the lucky ones.
I applied for a grant and I asked my GP to write a covering letter with all the information and equipment that would help me be independent.
I filled out the form online and they got back to me within 48 hours and I had ordered my car within 5 days.
Unfortunately I occasionally need 7 seats so the one car solution doesn’t exist short of something like a spacetourer, Proace Verso or Renault Traveller which again their book figures aren’t fantastically better than the current mpg I get now.
I don’t need to tow all the time like I said haven’t towed for 2 years now but what I need is a similar trim level to what I have now which according to grants isn’t what they assess on THAT’S what I’m saying is wrong tgres/you can’t just choose such a narrow criteria to assess someone’s needs, if an employer did that they’d be pulled up in front of a tribunal.
Fact of the matter is no matter the car it’d cost too much to run anything dinosair based will every journey we do is longer as we’re not in an urban environment & the double whammy of more expensive fuel often too. That mitsubishi has 32-36mpg which isnt a significant amount of saving to them commit to 3 years the only point in doing this is to save money. If I can’t save a significant amount of the £62 a week I’ll lose then its not cost effective.
The mitsubishi is still what 50 litre tank at £1.36 a litre vs say 50kWh at £3 per “tank” see the difference. Even allowing for a provident loan at 800% to fund £199-£399 its still be cheaper the choice of car isn’t the point here at all. The point is deciding what my needs are or aren’t & what they’ll assess on without even asking my name. How is that any different than someone saying you don’t look disabled because you’re not in a wheelchair?
No disrespect but I don’t really need suggestions ive spent a long time on this decision, done a lot of calculations.
I’ve now borrowed £199 at what % I have no idea but I’ll pay it off with a budgeting loan eventually & I’ll order the Mgzs eV it has heated pleather seats so easy to get in & out but losing the heated wheel so I’ll take the motability advice go buy usb rechargeable heated gloves instead, total bodge but what choice do I have & in the meantime I’m awaiting a response from motability the grants side not scheme side on how they decide grant criteria & how they can justify if its that narrow bearing in mind yes they’re a charity but how much money they are allegedly sitting on (I dont want to get into all that on here nor at all actually)
Hi Richard, hope your grant journey isn’t too difficult. I wondered if you’d weighed up the cost of hiring a car from Enterprise or similar for the very occasional towing requirements?
It seems many hire places do indeed have vehicles with tow bars fitted such as the Tiguan 4 motion etc. Just a thought, possibly something you have thought about, might help you out on the costs front.
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