During the Budget on Wednesday, Rachel Reeves spoke of many things, but what grabbed my attention when reflecting on some of the announcements that affected disabled people was the removal of luxury cars from the Motability Scheme.
What drew me in was how the Chancellor made me feel that, due to my disabilities, luxuries were no longer allowed. Whether this is how she intended it or not, it made me feel my disability made me less worthy.
With lots of talk of Motability since the last budget, in which a review was announced on disability benefits, I think many people were worried that this may be an area that could be affected. In this field, we have been lucky that the Chancellor didn’t go further.
Most of what the Chancellor had to say didn’t come as much of a surprise. In the days leading up to the Budget, some of the announcements had not only been reported but already implemented.
On Tuesday, Motability announced they have already removed cars from the scheme, such as BMW, Alfa Romeo, Lexus and Mercedes. However, many disabled people will pay thousands of pounds of their own money as an advance payment for these car,s which they will never see again. They then give up their monthly allowance to pay for the car. The same way anyone else would lease a car.
The move, and more so the way it has been done, has come as a slap in the face to people with disabilities and seems to say disabled people are not worthy of a nice car.
I have researched many cars on the scheme, and it is not always the brands that have been removed that cost the most, so why these brands?
If it was done as a way of moving the car industry towards encouraging people to buy British, which was also announced as part of the plan, it could have been delivered better.
For those of us with disabilities, an upcoming budget from the government is just as bad as an upcoming review from the DWP. The stress that comes from wondering how much will we lose, or how much will disabled people be attacked, can have an impact.
I have to admit, it is not as bad as it has been in the past, and I was quietly surprised by it, to be honest.
The good news is Rachel Reeves has announced she is raising all disability benefits, including PIP, Attendance Allowance, disability living allowance and Carer’s allowance, by 3.8% in April.
What she didn’t say
Whilst there was little in the budget for disabled people, it was hoped that there would be funds announced for Access to Work.
In a budget that was focused on the ‘Working People’ and getting people back to work, this government are very much out of touch with how to achieve this.
At the beginning of her speech, Rachel Reeves talked about how this was her budget and ‘These are my choices’. However, how can we have faith in a Chancellor who doesn’t understand how her choices can affect a community and how they can make us feel unworthy?
