[Theoboy]

How long does it take for a decision to be made what happens do they email you with a list of vehicles to choose from if successful thanks

Topic

[kezo]

Up to six months, quicker if your new to the scheme however, that was the last time I looked, so worth double checking on Motability’s website.

They can either give you a list of vehicles or advise you over the phone. It’s worth adding your chosen vehicle/s to the application form.

If you are awarded a grat its worth knowing that you can add a maximum of 50% to top up the award.

[Theoboy]

Thanks kezo

[Sonny]

We’ve been through it recently, it’s down to 4 weeks now. Your case manager will phone you to discuss their decision on the grant. If you’re not happy with the decision then go via complaints. That took us another few days but was worth doing.

[Theoboy]

Did they not come back with what you wanted sonny hence the reason you went through complaints thanks

[Sonny]

I posted about it elsewhere on here but my partner uses a wheelchair full time which means we either need a wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) or a person hoist to lift her from chair to car. WAVs have always been out of our price range so for the past 6 years we’ve used a person hoist. You’re allowed to transfer it once, so 3 years in first car and the they transfer it for 3 years in the next car. It used to be a free transfer but now it’s £100 I believe. After that you have to purchase a new one, current price being £795, it used to be considerably less than this. So this time around we needed to purchase another one and knew we couldn’t accord to. Incidentally if you purchase one but extend the lease to 5 years it then cannot be transferred, it’s only transferable on 3 year leases.

What we wanted to do was use the new vehicle payment being given to cover the cars advance payment and then on Motabilities own advice, apply for a grant to cover the person hoist. The only problem is that despite dealing with 3 different people on the grants phone line, no one told us they won’t offer a grant for adaptations on their own. They have to fund both the car and adaptation. Apparently their bizarre reasoning is that if you can afford the advance payment then you can also afford the adaptation. They wouldn’t consider funding the car and adaptation for my partner because she still had the option to extend the lease by another 2 years.

They said the only way they would fund it otherwise was if the current car , which remember is now at the end of its 3 year release was no longer suitable. My partner suffers a great deal of pain all the time so on car journeys her seat has to be adjusted multiple times. The problem with that is that when we swapped the car last we could only afford one with a manual passenger seat. My partner has been unable to adjust it herself which means I have to find somewhere safe to stop and adjust it for her. Not ideal and she has to wait for me to do it. I told them all of this but they dismissed it as acceptable and declined to help us.

We emailed the complaints email address and were emailed back within days saying they had overturned the decision. They funded both the car we wanted in full and the person hoist. They were by far the most helpful and knowledgeable person we’ve dealt with at Motability. They emailed the confirmation paperwork over that the dealership has to see so we didn’t have to wait for it in the post.

[Theoboy]

Ok thanks sonny

[Richard]

As I’ve said before imho the only decent competent people at Motability are on the end of the complaint process.

Every other person I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with was in general polite and friendly but ultimately completely useless

[Author]

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