The Government has announced that disabled people who are turned down for the enhanced mobility rate of Personal Independence Payment and lease a vehicle through the Motability scheme will be able to keep their cars for longer.
Commenting on the changes Liz Sayce said:
These changes will make a real difference to some people, particularly those who might have previously had to hand back their cars to Motability whilst waiting for the outcome of an appeal.
There are still some real problems with PIP, and these changes won’t help disabled people who have long waiting times for appeals in their local area. We still need a more robust assessment process so people don’t have to go to appeal in the first instance.
Motability commented:
For almost 40 years, Motability – as an independent charity – has been committed to helping disabled people and their families with their mobility and to date has provided over four and a half million vehicles. Some five years ago, Governors recognised that the introduction of PIP would be a major change to disability benefits and that many disabled people might need our help and support during the period of transition.
Since 2013, our transitional support package has helped over 50,000 disabled people who can no longer use the Scheme, to retain mobility outside of it. The additional support that we are now able to provide, as outlined in the Minister’s statement today, will help many Scheme customers including those who are in the process of reconsideration or appeal.
Motability Operations will be implementing this enhanced transitional support package with immediate effect. Once they are notified by DWP that a customer no longer has higher rate mobility allowance following a DLA to PIP reassessment, they will write to customers outlining the support available depending on when they joined the Scheme:
Customer first joined Scheme before end of 2012
- Returns car within 8 weeks of DLA payments ending. Motability provides transitional support payment of £2,000.
- or
- Returns car within 26 weeks of DLA payments ending. Motability provides transitional support payment of £500.
Customer first joined Scheme during 2013
- Returns car within 8 weeks of DLA payments ending. Motability provides transitional support payment of £1,000.
- or
- Returns car within 26 weeks of DLA payments ending. Motability provides transitional support payment of £250.
Customer first joined Scheme after 2013
- Returns car within 8 weeks of DLA payments ending.
Customers who have not yet returned the car will also be able to take advantage of the increased support and the details of how this will be communicated to these customers are being finalised over the coming days.
This additional time and flexibility will prove helpful to former Scheme customers in a variety of circumstances. These include former Scheme customers who may be challenging the DWP award decision and who do not wish to return their Scheme car until they have completed the processes of reconsideration and appeal. However, it is for the customer to decide whether they wish to challenge the DWP award decision; the transitional support package provided by Motability is not in any way linked to their decisions.
We will continue to monitor customers’ feedback on the support and advice we provide and we may make further changes to it based on experience. We will also continue to review all aspects of our support package each year, to take account of economic circumstances and any possible changes the Government may be making to PIP at that time.