Up to 20 disabled Scots are losing their right to mobility vehicles each week, due to benefit reassessments, according to a charity.
Campaigners responded to the figures by warning that losing payments towards vehicles is leaving disabled people unable to take an active part in society and removing their independence.
Motability is responsible for running a mobility scheme on behalf of the UK Government which allows disabled people to buy adapted cars, powered wheelchairs or scooters. It said its latest figures showed that 100-150 people a week across the UK were having to give up their vehicles after being reassessed for a new benefit.
Personal Independence Payments are replacing the Disability Living Allowance, and while both benefits include an enhanced mobility payment, many claimants are being judged not to need it even though they previously qualified.
A spokeswoman for Motability said that thousands of disabled drivers and users of powered mobility aids had lost eligibility for the scheme since 2013 when PIP began to be introduced.
"As the Department for Work and Pensions have reassessed customers receiving DLA, just under 11,500 to date have been awarded the same level of support under PIP and have remained on the Scheme," she said. "At the same time, we have seen around 8,000 existing Scheme customers lose eligibility to the upper level of mobility support as they are reassessed from DLA to PIP. We are currently seeing around 100-150 customers losing eligibility each week."
Separate figures for Scotland were unavailable, she said, but confirmed that around 10 per cent of these were likely to be claimants from north of the border.
The
2.2. Using the DWP’s projections Inclusion
Scotland estimates that, by 2018,
over
80,000
working age disabled people in Scotland will lose either some or
all of the mobility allowance that they would otherwise have been entitled to:
3
?
47,000
will lose higher/enhanced rate
mobility allowance. The
su
bsequent loss in income to disabled people in Scotland will be at
least £135 million
a year by 2018.
?
34,100
will lose standard rate mobility
allowance. The subsequent
loss in income to disabled people in Scotland will be at least £37
million
a year by 201
8.
2.3 As one in three current Higher Rate DLA Mobility component recipients
currently use their benefit to lease Motability vehicles as many as 16,000
disabled people in Scotland may also lose their Motability cars and scooters,
leading to a
growing
demand for accessible and responsive community
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