The Disability News Service (DNS) website is reporting that 101,000 claimants have lost their Motability vehicles when obliged to claim personal independence payment (PIP) instead of disability living allowance (DLA).
DNS obtained the figures after former Conservative minister for disabled people claimed that her Labour opponent in the current election was wrong to say that 80,000 people had lost their Motability vehicle because “when you transfer to PIP if you can walk more than 20 metres you lose your Motability vehicle.”
Miller responded that the higher rate of mobility for DLA “was actually designed for people who couldn’t walk”.
She then repeated the line, saying: “You use the example of people who could walk, that was never designed for people who were able to walk, it was designed for people who didn’t have the capacity.”
In fact, DLA higher rate mobility could be claimed by, amongst others, people who could not walk more than 50 metres without pain or severe discomfort.
When DNS contacted Motability, it turned out that Marchant was indeed wrong, but only because she had under-reported the numbers having to hand back their Motability vehicle.
According to a Motability spokesperson:
“As of 1 November 2019, some 101,000 customers have lost their eligibility to the scheme meaning they would have had to return their vehicle after a DLA-PIP reassessment.”
