- This topic has 27 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 2 months ago by
.
- Topic
Think about it.
The DWP gives our PIP money to Motability who makes a handsome profit running into millions.
Suppose the government took over from Motability called itself Department of Disability Transport and kept the same model and practice that is in place at present but made it not for profit.
The DWP would then give our PIP money to the DDT and they would then invest all those millions back into the scheme. The DDT could even have disabilities groups on the committee making recommendation on our behalf.
Could that work?
- Replies
IF you believe for a second that the government would ring-fence the profits and use it solely for helping the disabled. Personally I would expect any profit to disappear back into other areas, which would probably then result in a push for higher profits to fund other things so we’d end up with worse options, higher prices and generally be worse off.
It is only my opinion, but I think it would be an absolutely terrible idea. In next to no time it would occur to some bean-counter that they don’t really need a whole new department to run it, so it’d be folded into the DWP or something which would then mean if and when you needed to contact them, you would get some general assistant with little specific knowledge of the motability side of things.
"Man is born in freedom, but he soon becomes a slave, in cages of convention, from the cradle, to the grave."
Personally I would expect any profit to disappear back into other areas,
Personally I agree with you Colin and think it’s a bad idea but however you look at it, this is exactly what happened to the multi-millions that Motability donated last year.
Of course any input of cash to assist disabled people is a great idea but it did leave me feeling like I was being taxed for finally succumbing to my disability and joining the scheme. This may be a selfish view but after 50+ years of struggling but still giving, I’m needing to feel a little selfish.
Where’s the feeling sorry for myself emoji?
?? I will be remembered for nothing but had great fun doing it ?
The government will give it to Capita or Atos to run on there behalf, I will let you imagination figure the rest out?
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.
Ha ha ha ha ha, thanks for the laugh, I’ve not laughed that much for a long time, the government making sure we get everything we’re entitled to and using profits to benefit us! Really!!! Look how they managed the claims process for us to get PIP in order to become eligible in the first place.
Personally I believe it would be a utter disaster for motability and would almost certainly have a detrimental effect on the users and disabled in general we currently have a government who promote a ‘every man for themselves attitude ‘if you look at benefits in general there are a lot of people who are even jealous of people who even have less
Agree with everything above, especially Colin ?
Also it gives politicians a nice little earner when they finish to get taken on as “consultants”
Wow, just imagine it. God it would be so awful its beyond words…
The first thing to remember, as a government body, they are not allowed to hold ANY cash reserves, so the £millions in reserve immediately gets given back to the treasury (this is irrespective of Labour/Cons govt, it’s the basic rules of public sector). Then they would asset strip it and bleed it dry.
The only choice on the scheme would then dwindle to a basic Dacia Sandero Access or, for those of you who need a large car, a Logan. Or some other stripped out Govt special model made for the scheme…Blue Invacar anyone??
They would use untold millions of £’s to try to create software to manage it, by using Capita et al, who would not deliver on time, nor provide a functioning system (partly because the department can’t decide what it wants nor adequately describe it) but Capita can fix it for just a few more X million over Y years, honest…(where X is the largest number their sales guy can think of & Y sounds almost plausible).
How do I know? I work in procurement in the public sector. Despite trying to manage the processes like a private sector firm would (I’ve not always been in the public sector) its like herding cats, the management are determined to waste money at every opportunity.
And that s if they allowed it to continue at all, one decent push by some twit of an MP and it would be done away with to save money – but claiming environmental wonderfulness as the reason, “if we do not give these so called disabled people a car then we shall save our environment. We shall issue a reduced fare system for public transport instead, a clear victory in the (insert party name here) parties winning fight against climate change” said MP Jonty McTwit as he sped off in his ministerial Jag to blurt out another meaningless soundbite….
I shall now step off my ranting stool and go have a quiet lie down…
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
If you think the current list is, well, a little lacking in choice then give the scheme to the Govt. By the time the appointed thugs – sorry, ministers – get their hands on it then you will be lucky to be left with push-bikes on the list. Then the Daily Mail would stop that and we’d only be allowed roller skates!
I would have to agree with the rest of the guys. I can’t see it working.
What I could see working is a bit of competition for motability, another lease company coming in or a large manufacturer.
Well George that’s you told lol, but I like the fact you have brought up alternatives to motability and I think I am right in saying that your main thrust is to have a “not for profit” organisation/company running the scheme. I think that this is unlikely to be achieved now but I do think some rules/standards could be brought in to improve the scheme for us.
As it stands employees are given a host of perks to soak up the profits made from us, you think the profit they make just now is disgraceful just think how bad it would look for them if the bonuses were stopped, the non contributory 15% pension, the free private health care, the inflated salaries, the luxury offices etc etc.
So although your idea has been shot down it has came from the right place, that being making this scheme better and more affordable for the disabled customers.
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.Please don’t take any of the above as a dig George – the idea itself isn’t a bad one, just the general consensus seems to be that trusting the government to do it is.
I absolutely agree with the idea of a second Scheme running in parallel though – we have all these anti-monopoly laws, so a completely second company, recovery by AA instead of RAC, tyres by someone other than kwik fit, insurance by someone other than RSA.
It isn’t that I specifically dislike the RAC, RSA or KF – it’s just that with zero competition, there’s zero incentive to offer more than the absolute minimum.
The insurance especially could do with a couple of minor top-ups – how many of you are aware of the fact that if your Motability car is stolen, and you have ANYTHING in it, NOTHING is covered for your property? (at least this is what I believe from admitted small amounts of research) Most insurances cover personal possessions as long as simple rules are followed (locked in the boot, not on display etc.) but not ours, and the inability to drive other vehicles, something which, again, is covered by the vast majority of comprehensive insurance policies is another thing I miss. For the first time in 20 years, I’m a named driver on my mothers little Polo just in case she needs me to drive it. Fortunately, with my record, it cost a grand total of £7 to add me
"Man is born in freedom, but he soon becomes a slave, in cages of convention, from the cradle, to the grave."
I wonder how motability employees can look themselves in the mirror I really do. They are way overpaid and overperked for the job they do cause let’s face it, it isn’t brain surgery. The guys who take your call are similar to those working in any call centre around the country. The middle management are really admin staff and those negotiating deals have the easiest job of all as the finance model they use dictates which deals are accepted.
In my opinion the bosses are “empire building” employing more staff than necessary to justify their inflated wages and bonuses.
It would be really interesting to compare motability wages, conditions etc to the next biggest fleet provider to see the differences.
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.Ah Brydo, you’ve forgotten that there are many people out there who work for charities because they feel they are entitled to take a cut of any money (or anything else) going to that charity. This is why charities breed highly overpaid directors.
Charity used to be all about giving, but now it’s all about setting up a charity for any random reason to fleece the public of as much money as possible. Just look at all the expensive television adverts for charities, all paid for by donations of “just £3 a month”, and a farthing goes to those who the charity purports to support.
Just catching up with the replies which although predictable was quite interesting.
The consensus seems to be that the millions that Motability have made out of our PIP money and have stashed away is not the same as it would be if the government were to operate the mobility scheme and do the same thing. I don’t understand this argument as it seems it is OK for Motability to do that but not central government. For a start in the public sector if a department didn’t spend all of it’s allocated money for that year then the government claims it. The answer is to spend it and invest in smaller AP’s, bigger discounts and more grants before the end of that financial year. As for Atos and Capita taking over the scheme I will accept that as pure tongue in cheek.
At the end of the day Motability is just a glorified agency who are authorised to administer the paperwork between dealers and third parties. There really isn’t a lot to it in this digital age.
Having said all that I can understand why folk think this government in particular would fleece every penny out of you no matter whether it be NHS, dentist, prescription charges, stealth taxes or whatever. I am fortunate enough to live in Scotland where the SNP government have been very fair to disabled people and eventually hope to have control of all welfare benefits. I for one would trust the SNP to look after its disabled people and run a motability scheme for us with a bit more dignity than shown by the English government that’s for sure. It’s all a matter of trust I suppose.
The scheme is far from perfect for use user point of view, but as a business model it is A1, I cannot see a government department, Capital or Atos running the scheme as well, personally I believe they would destroy it.
As regards the SNP no comment
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.
Government departments tend to over complicate and blame every mistake on the last part in power, political point scoring, jobs for the boys (and girls) my fear would be longer waits in completing paperwork, not being able to contact a person when needed to sort any problem and lots and lots of waste and scandals over funding.
I Can’t see how we would be any better off.
For me the scheme works fine and doesn’t need massive changes, a raise in the caps and more choice would be great but i don’t think it would stop me using it
This government is untrustworthy, unaccountable, opportunistic and totally lacks empathy. Disabled people should be wary of placing the administration of our mobility needs in the hands of these self serving politicians.
Motability is not perfect, but it has looked after me admirably for the last quarter of a century.
I guess there are many ways to look at it, They have a big pot of money stashed away so if market conditions change the scheme is still viable and i guess they buy however many cars and wavs etc upfront for hundreds of thousands of ppl every 3 years.. i’ll soon be in my 4th car on the scheme and manafacturer prices keep rising, although the pip or dla (before it) hasn’t really kept pace with that.. So who’s fault is it, that less and less high end cars are on the scheme..
Ap’s are getting higher as that gap increases and is only going to get worse imo… the Gcb has gone up to £600 from £250 a £350 increase, so it’s not all bad from MB. Cheaper than leasing and i could not afford to buy the car i get on the scheme new.. As for the goverment well, i’d say no. simply because they see the car as a cash cow and want to end us owning private cars and driving into city centres, it would only be worse.
If the Gov took over it would be an absolute shambles within 6 years ( 2 average car leases )
I don’t think the Tory government recognises the word ‘disabilities’. Heaven help you if you are poor, disabled or both Rees-Mogg will privatise the food banks and Iain Duncan Smith will bring back the workhouse no one will need a car. Can you imagine the info the government will have on you if they took over Motability? The first thing they would do if they started giving out cars to the disabled would be to make you work for your PIP money by delivering door to door all their propaganda leaflets. They give PIP claimants a hard time as it is if their assessors think you don’t look disabled enough. I dread to think what sanctions they will think up to torture Mobility customers with if they took over the scheme. Shudder.
I will leave you with this
A driver with his arm in a sling was charged for parking his car in a disabled space.
“This is for badge holders only, sir!” said the traffic warden
“But look, I do have a bad shoulder!” said the driver,.
Nooooooooo
The government cant run anything properly.
The question is not so much “Should” as “Will”.
Considering all the stuff they’ve done to us over the last 9 years I’m sure that ‘Finding further ways to save money by drastically reducing the Quality of Life for Disabled People’ has to be somewhere on their post-Brexit Agenda. Taking over the clearly highly profitable Motability Scheme would be one way.
George,
My comments on government waste and it’s total inability to run a sideshow at a fairground relates wholly to the Scottish Government – I have been in the public sector here in Scotland…
I would fully expect the motability scheme to vanish overnight in Scotland if independence came about. No other country in the world runs such a scheme & it would be a lot less financially viable in Scotland’s much reduced population.
Maybe its just a glass half full vs glass half empty outlook.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
That’s a fair point regarding Scotland. Though some sort of smaller scale ‘favourable Leasing arrangement’ would not be beyond possibility, surely. Maybe getting a vehicle from a regular Leasing Service but with the Government covering Insurance costs? That sort of thing.
Assuming Scotland can afford to continue with PIP/DLA type benefits, of course. Or England, Wales and Northern Ireland either, come to that.
As with everything Brexit-related, the Magic Eight Ball just says “Ask again later”.
Sorry, Abercol – I just realised you were answering George’s post from yesterday.
Too confusing. I’ll get me coat . . .
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.