Siobhain speaks up about changes in the motability car scheme

Siobhain has spoken in Parliament of the number of constituents losing their Motability allowance as a result of benefits transitions, specifically those being re-evaluated from Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payments.

You can read Siobhain's speech below.

'I thank the hon. Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun (Alan Brown) for securing this debate and for giving me the opportunity to have a quick “round the office” look at some of the anomalies affecting people as they transfer to PIP and its higher-rate mobility component.

I have already spoken about one of my constituents who was in work and lost her higher-rate mobility payment only now to receive £150 a week from the Access to Work programme—tripling the amount of money paid to help her mobility, yet causing greater problems for her young daughter, who is her main carer and now has to do even more tasks for her mother. Looking at my constituent's case for this debate allowed me to follow on to the case of another of my constituents, who is also in full-time employment.

This constituent suffers from spina bifida and cannot walk more than 20 yards. He had a specially adapted car with hand controls, which is due to be removed on Tuesday, so it would be great if the Minister could help us while this constituent's appeal is being considered, as he lost his mandatory reconsideration. We are going to get him to apply to the Access to Work programme, so he will probably cost the Government a lot more money than if he had just retained his higher-rate mobility payment.

Another of my constituents suffered a stroke in 2014 and was awarded the lower-rate care component and higher-rate mobility component of DLA. When she was reassessed for PIP, the rates were swapped, so she got higher-rate care and lower-rate mobility. Her car was taken away, but she was paid £25 a week more. She does not want more money; she wants the adapted car.

And a fourth constituent was was shifted from DLA to PIP without being informed. The first she knew of the transfer was when she got a letter from Motability saying that her car was going to be taken away. There had been no assessment of her case, yet there is a date for the removal of her car. We discovered that the Atos database does not work with the DWP database, so when Motability was trying to find out the status of my constituent's claim for PIP, the DWP could not tell Motability her status because the DWP does not have a system that works with Atos’s system.

The only way the DWP, Motability and Atos could talk to one another was through the involvement of Ross in my office. He spoke to each of them so that they could co-ordinate and consult each other. The hon. Member for Bath (Ben Howlett) spoke about swapping information and access to information, which is clearly a problem within the system. The Minister might find that lots of people who are entitled to PIP but who are not getting it because of administrative error will have their car taken away without their ever getting as far as Atos or a decision.'

If you are effected by this issue, and would like Siobhain's help, give her office a call on 0207 219 4678 or email in at mcdonaghs@parliament.uk