Grants for advance payments on Motability vehicles

[Hayley]

Has anybody ever applied for/or received one of these? I have a family car on Motability on which the lease expires next March. However, since the boys have all grown into large adults we need a much larger car! We can't afford to have two cars and we can't leave the boys at home as three of them are Autistic. The car also needs to be automatic as my hands and wrists are too weak to drive a manual one. The only car we've found which is of suitable size is the Kia Sedona. However, the advance payment on this is £4250!! There's no way we can afford this so we have the forms to fill in to get a grant with this but it does ask for income and expenditure. Our income looks quite a lot as there are four of us receiving DLA but at the end of the day, there's a lot to pay out for six adults!

Any advice would be gratefully received, thank you!

Hayley

[Retro]

Have you asked if you could combine mobility components?

Lindsey

[hippyshaker]

Hi there, i recently took delivery of my motorbility car last month (passed my test back in february woohoo!). I can honestly say its changed my life! I needed an automatic also as I'm only licensed for that due to my left leg being so affected. i also had to have a large boot to fit the wheelchair in. This also had to be flat loading so i could drag it in and out (via a ramp) myself. Also I needed high seats as cant get up from low heights.
The cheapest car which fit my criteria was the scenic, this had a £545 down payment-may be worth a look as there is alot of interia space and this could be suitable for you and your lads. I applied for a grant-very easy I just phoned them up and did it via the phone. They phoned me back that day with an initial decision (confirmed when income details had been verified). I got a full grant. I beleive its based on your income whether you get nothing, full, or partial grants.
I hope this helps in some way. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask or pm me and i will do my best to be of use!

[Hayley]

Hi Hippyshaker, thanks for your info on the grant. We have a Zafira at the moment and it's too small for the boys - all four of them are nearly 6ft tall so the Scenic would be tiny for them!

I didn't know they could do the grant by phone. We are on Income Support but because the boys get DLA as well (not high rate) it looks as though we have a big income but we do have to spend out a lot too.

Retro, I don't know about combining the DLA as the boys are only on low rate mobility.

Hayley

[Retro]

Don't forget, Income support is a mean's tested benefit and DLA when calculating any kind of benefit isn't counted I would guess the fact that you are on income support and have 3 big boys on DLA will swing it.

Edited to add: The Grant's policy document is available here and does cover not only your needs but also those of your immediate family.

Lindsey

[JazzyJaz]

Hi Hayley
I have a Motability car, although I didn't apply for a grant for that, I took the money out of some savings, as at the time I didn't think I was eligible for a grant. However, I am getting a hoist fitted to my car soon for my scooter, and I did get a grant for this. The people at the adaptations company were very helpful in telling me the right people to speak to and going through the process of applying for a grant. Maybe your car dealer will be able to help in this way. As for means testing, Retro is right, they don't count DLA as income. I'm also on Income Support, and because to get IS you have already been means tested then they're not too worried about further means testing.

I applied over the phone, and then they told me how much I would have to pay (£50 towards a total cost of £1305!) and then they sent the paperwork to comfirm it all and I had to fill in a form which wasn't much trouble (most had already been done over the phone) and then once that was done I got my quote thingy to take when I get the hoist fitted. The process for advance and adaptation grants is pretty much the same, so it shouldn't be too difficult. Also, the way they decided how much money they would give me was basically that they asked how much I would be completely happy to pay, and then they halved that so that although I said I'd be happy to pay £100 I only have to pay £50. This might be different for someone not on Income Support, but then if you are then I wouldn't worry!

Good luck, I hope it all goes well.
Jaz x

[Hayley]

Thanks Lindsey and Jaz, that info was a great help!

I'm just looking through the policy now Lindsey and it seems as though we can get some help towards the basic model. It's actually four boys we have but three are Autistic. We had a look at the Sedona yesterday and it's perfect, plenty of room for all of us. It's the only one we've found that can fit us all in comfortably so we'll have to go for that one. It's not actually due until March but I just wanted to find out if we would be eligible for a grant for such a large car before looking around. Thanks!


Hayley

[Retro]

No probem Hayley,

It's something I was needing to find out about anyway because my ex needs an MPV because of his back problems and he has a specially made board to stop our Autistic son wrecking the back of the front seats. He had a Zafira but won't be able to get another diesel MPV without putting down a hefty deposit. He got a deal on a Focus C-MAX last time but he would like the S-MAX or another Zafira next time, it's due in March too. The only diesel MPVs that are almost always deposit free or small are the Picasso and Scenic and he doesn't like either of them Of course our boys are getting bigger now too.

Lindsey

[earthmother]

It's good to see someone as organised as me Hayley, lol. Our motability vehicle isn't due for renewal until next June, but I'm already working out the finances etc This thread has already answered a couple of questions for me, so thank you


We have a Toyota Previa at the moment (we had the money to pay the downpayment ourselves 2 years ago) - which is perfect for us - unfortunately we found out recently that production has ceased, so it won't be available next year

So, not only do we this time have to apply for the grant, but we also have to do the whole 'checking every possible option' trek around the car showrooms of two counties (we live on a border) On past experience, we can manage about one car a week before it takes it's toll on hubby, so it's a long drawn out process - we'll probably start sometime in December

We're a family of 5 - hubby is the DLA recipient, and also the driver, and needs wide opening doors, no sills etc for access, an auto transmission and hand controls because of his various problems (not all HMS). He's also 6'3. The kids are young - 6, 3.5 and 14 months, but all three are hypermobile and also need the enhanced access and space we get from the Previa. By the time we've loaded hubby's wheelchair, littlest's buggy and a week's shopping in, we've filled the boot, and that' after taking one or both of the back seats out.

Two years ago, our next best option was the Sharan, although that wasn't ideal, and we didn't know no.3 was even going to happen at that point. so we're panicking a little already, lol.

However Retro's link has brought up the possibility of us keeping the Previa for another 2 years - apparently it can be done if the vehicle will still be suitable and it's the cheapest option, which I imagine it will be. Thank you Retro for that little ray of hope

[Hayley]

I had a letter this morning offering a grant towards the deposit (not the full amount obviously) but by the looks of things, the Motability people think I am looking to change the vehicle now rather than when the contract runs out in March! I can't change it now because we need to save quite a bit to add to their grant so I will have to contact them and explain things fully.

Hayley

[lisalou]

hi all this may sound silly but this is all new to me who do you apply to for a grant on a mobility vehicle can anyone help . many thanks lisalou

[Retro]

Hi Lisa,

If you go to the motability website at http://www.motability.co.uk there is information on there about the schemes and grants.

Lindsey

[lisalou]

Thanks lindsey for your help it was much appreciated i found the site answered alot of my questions . thanks again lisalou

[Hayley]

Well, I'm a little bit disappointed with Motability at the moment . As I said in my post from last July, we applied for a grant to help with the advance payment of a large MPV (such as a Kia Sedona) as we have four rather tall and heavy teenage boys. I know the vehicle is supposed to be for me but with three of the boys having Autism, we have to take them everywhere with us so we need the larger MPV. Anyway, the advance payment on the Sedona is about £3450 and in July we were offered £2650 towards the payment, which was great. However, we only had 2 weeks to accept the offer which we couldn't do because the contract wasn't up until March 1st. To cut a long story short, we had to re-apply in December and found out today that we can now only have £800 towards a medium sized MPV. We can't afford to pay the rest to get the large one so for the next three years we'll all have to squash into a Zafira again. Still, it's better than nothing. Although I do have to wait another month for the new car now as we couldn't order it until an offer of a grant was made (which was today) and there's a 10 week waiting list. Dont' get me wrong, I'm extremely grateful for having the car, I just don't understand why they changed their minds since last July.

Hayley

[Englishgremlin1]

I don't know if this will help but I have just started doing my homework for a WAV as I can no longer handle using a hoist in the boot of my lovely Scenic (Thunderbird2 to its freinds!). On option I am looking into is the Motobility scheme for buying a second hand car. It is hidden in the back of their information pack.

It may help you.