Wow! Where do I sign? Gumtree chancers.

[autofive]

i ve heard stories about unsuitable mobility cars being leased or bought

purely to sell on, with some kind of tax discount as it was 'supposed' to be a disability car

[warren t claim]

We don't do much motability at the Merc garage I work in, but of the ones we have, I would say 50% are scroungers.

 

CASE 1: Middle aged couple bought a 56 plate C180 on 5 year Motability HP.

Wanted to know all the ins and outs of the towing capacity of the car because it need to tow their caravan on their holidays abroad!!!!!

They would walk in the showroom quite normally and sit drinking our coffee for weeks afterwards, standing and chatting to the receptionist and scoffing free biscuits. After a couple of months, they decide the car wasnt powerful enough to tow the caravan and tried to make out we'd mis-sold them the car so they could get their money back.

 

CASE 2: Young couple, quite well to do, (Motability isn't means tested) enquire after a car on Motability for their ill mother, to take her to the shops. Met the mother, who to be fair did have limited moveability .

What car did they get? Practical hatcback? Roomy 4 door saloon?

No, a frickin SLK!!! The poor woman could hardly get in it!! But at least they had a nice car to swan around in.

 

Motability state that the car has to be used purely for the benefit of the recipient of the disability award. In my opinion there should be a choice of ONE basic car, say a Ford Fusion, unless a hoist or wheelchair access is required. Then whatever is suitable.

Can you get a used car on the Motability scheme?

[scaryoldcortina]

Well, I have first hand experience of both motability and disability without being a scrounging wanker. It isn't fun when your wife gets consigned to life in a chair at 24, it really isn't. Also, if you have an ounce of sense, the higher rate DLA (mobility component) is more than enough to buy a nice-ish shitter to run about in and have plenty left over to compensate for only having 1 earning adult in the household.

[AXrescuer]

A fat woman in a scooter with her arse cheeks hanging over the seat?

 

May I present Kendra Krystal Krinklesac!

 

[warren t claim]

Well, I have first hand experience of both motability and disability without being a scrounging wanker. It isn't fun when your wife gets consigned to life in a chair at 24, it really isn't. Also, if you have an ounce of sense, the higher rate DLA (mobility component) is more than enough to buy a nice-ish shitter to run about in and have plenty left over to compensate for only having 1 earning adult in the household.

Exactly! People don't understand that you can trouser your higher rate DLA and spend it on having a better standard of life and just spend £750 on a car that will do everything you ask of it. Alas most Jeremy Kyle fans would rather make a style statement at the local Gala Bingo in their now Fiat 500/Bini.

[ashmicro]

I worked in DLA Branch in Belfast for a few years, and the Motability Scehem as it's called is horribly abused. The relevant section of the Social Secuity Act states, IIRC, that a claimant must be "unable, or virtually unable to walk" in order to be awarded the higher rate of the Mobility component of DLA.

 

The crux of the matter is this: DLA was introduced to replace Attendance Allowance for those aged under 65. However, if you are in receipt of DLA before 65, you don't change to AA when you turn 65.

 

At the same time, while all claimants used to get a visit from a doctor, who'd complete a report and send it to an adjudication officer (I was one), they changed it to FUCKING SELF ASSESSMENT!! Lunacy of the highest order. So in the past, the doc could tell me "this guy is a chancer", I'd chin his claim, job jobbed. With the new system, the claimants can ham up (or in some cases MAKE up) their problems, get a vague 2 lines from their GP and I'd have to award them.

 

,

 

We were informed by the POLICE that a number of Motab cars were being used as illegal taxis in Belfast, one being driven by the brother of a man who'd eventually become the Mayor of Belfast.

[scaryoldcortina]

I worked in DLA Branch in Belfast for a few years, and the Motability Scehem as it's called is horribly abused. The relevant section of the Social Secuity Act states, IIRC, that a claimant must be "unable, or virtually unable to walk" in order to be awarded the higher rate of the Mobility component of DLA.

 

The crux of the matter is this: DLA was introduced to replace Attendance Allowance for those aged under 65. However, if you are in receipt of DLA before 65, you don't change to AA when you turn 65.

 

At the same time, while all claimants used to get a visit from a doctor, who'd complete a report and send it to an adjudication officer (I was one), they changed it to FUCKING SELF ASSESSMENT!! Lunacy of the highest order. So in the past, the doc could tell me "this guy is a chancer", I'd chin his claim, job jobbed. With the new system, the claimants can ham up (or in some cases MAKE up) their problems, get a vague 2 lines from their GP and I'd have to award them.

 

,

 

We were informed by the POLICE that a number of Motab cars were being used as illegal taxis in Belfast, one being driven by the brother of a man who'd eventually become the Mayor of Belfast.

Really? well, I have another tale. After 5 years of DLA my wife got refused on a renewal on (primarily) a doctor's statement from the renewal application. He spent 5 mins in the house, insulted my wife, had no knowledge of her condition and left without making an examination. It took 2 appeals and a consultant rheumatologist to overturn that act of spite.

 

Oh, and it took 2 years of appeals to get the DLA in the first place. Thankfully, she is now on an indefinate (life) award so I don't have to deal with the awful mental consequences of her not being believed. She didn't have depression before all the DLA shit, just serious mobility trouble. She does now.

 

edit: I've read that back now.. not a personal dig at you, just the other side of the fence. Mrs S has Hypermobility, by the way, it's genetic, incurable, and so bad she can dislocate a hip getting out of bed.

[whitevanman]

Aye...they don't make it easy for those that genuinly have problems.........

[ashmicro]

I worked in DLA Branch in Belfast for a few years, and the Motability Scehem as it's called is horribly abused. The relevant section of the Social Secuity Act states, IIRC, that a claimant must be "unable, or virtually unable to walk" in order to be awarded the higher rate of the Mobility component of DLA.

 

The crux of the matter is this: DLA was introduced to replace Attendance Allowance for those aged under 65. However, if you are in receipt of DLA before 65, you don't change to AA when you turn 65.

 

At the same time, while all claimants used to get a visit from a doctor, who'd complete a report and send it to an adjudication officer (I was one), they changed it to FUCKING SELF ASSESSMENT!! Lunacy of the highest order. So in the past, the doc could tell me "this guy is a chancer", I'd chin his claim, job jobbed. With the new system, the claimants can ham up (or in some cases MAKE up) their problems, get a vague 2 lines from their GP and I'd have to award them.

 

,

 

We were informed by the POLICE that a number of Motab cars were being used as illegal taxis in Belfast, one being driven by the brother of a man who'd eventually become the Mayor of Belfast.

Really? well, I have another tale. After 5 years of DLA my wife got refused on a renewal on (primarily) a doctor's statement from the renewal application. He spent 5 mins in the house, insulted my wife, had no knowledge of her condition and left without making an examination. It took 2 appeals and a consultant rheumatologist to overturn that act of spite.

 

Oh, and it took 2 years of appeals to get the DLA in the first place. Thankfully, she is now on an indefinate (life) award so I don't have to deal with the awful mental consequences of her not being believed. She didn't have depression before all the DLA shit, just serious mobility trouble. She does now.

You have my sympathy. Believe me, that place was the most disorganised place you could imagine. I had awarded folks, on numerous occasions, only to have my adjudication overturned by the Office of the Chief Adjudication Officer.

 

As others have alluded, it's the buggers who have fuck all wrong with them that screw up the system for the deserving. For example, due to the massive, and I mean massive, number of claims coming in, there was a new "initiative" every 5 bloody minutes, hundreds of lost files as a result, and deserving people underservedly denied, all due to the fact that every other month internal criteria were changed, an no-one knew what the hell we were supposed to be working to. It also has to be said that a good number of the staff I worked with were thorogoing bastards who didn't give a fuck.

[scaryoldcortina]

Ash, I can well believe that! I seem to have spent half my life arguing with the DLA.. as I said in my edit, I wasn't having a go at you personally, but the whole motability scroungers issue is a bit of a red rag. I've seen plenty of perfectly fit people jump out of the new car (parked on a double yell with a badge) and swan into the post office to cash their "allowance" it pisses me off probably more than anyone that and non-disabled cock ends that will park in a disabled bay because owning a new BMW makes you that much more important...

[whitevanman]

Ash, I can well believe that! I seem to have spent half my life arguing with the DLA.. as I said in my edit, I wasn't having a go at you personally, but the whole motability scroungers issue is a bit of a red rag. I've seen plenty of perfectly fit people jump out of the new car (parked on a double yell with a badge) and swan into the post office to cash their "allowance" it pisses me off probably more than anyone that and non-disabled cock ends that will park in a disabled bay because owning a new BMW makes you that much more important...

or think of it as a disability owning a new BMW........nah your right

[CIH]

I use to see alot of Motability working at Shit-Fit. One guy in particular was a total knob end. BMW 335i Coupe Cabriolet with 19" wheels. He had run flat a tyre so bad there was literally half an inch of bead attached the rest had detached and was like "You do whatever it takes to get that off but if you damage the wheel you pay for it" I was like "no"....

 

oh I got a picture of the wheel!

 

 

Most seemed okay. The staff hated Motability jobs due to the way the bonus sytem worked but I always tried to treat them properly.

[warren t claim]

A BMW 335i on Mobility?????

[scaryoldcortina]

A BMW 335i on Mobility?????

you can have anything you like if you can stump up the deposit.... it's lease-hire!

[warren t claim]

Fuck me! How much would the deposit be for one of them then?

[scaryoldcortina]

Fucked if I know, but I bet if you phone a BMW dealer in the morning they will tell you!

 

seriously though, motability deals tend to be identical to £199/month 3 year lease hire deals.