Kettering Ex-Paralympian speaks out against Motability denying wheelchair users their independence

I recently applied for a WAV (wheelchair accessible vehicle) that I can personally drive due to no longer having a partner in good health who can do all the driving.

Powerchair users are being denied our independence by Motability Foundation. I applied for a grant for a wheelchair accessible vehicle to enable my independence & aid getting my husband to his hospital and therapy appointments. I am a 51 year old, double amputee with back injury & a full time Powerchair user. I am denied a grant for a new Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) due to not working or volunteering or even having excessive hospital appointments! Motability Foundation Grants Team expect me to transfer from my Powerchair from the side of a van into the drivers seat & another person drive my chair up the ramp & into the chair docking system therefore removing my freedom, independence & autonomy as I would always need an able bodied person with me!

Motability Foundation refuted a Zoom meeting to discuss my appeal on 30 August 2024. In my opinion this was due to who my advocates are even though they are not Motability Customers!

I am not alone in my need to be independent other Powerchair & wheelchair users are being denied grants to for the same reasons. We need the costly adaptations to vehicles to ensure our independence.

John Pring from the ‘Disability News Service’ wrote an online article on 15 August 2024, stating “She believes some of the billions of pounds of reserves held by the charity and by Motability Operations, the company that runs the scheme on its behalf, should be used to provide more grants for what the Motability scheme calls “complex driving solutions” (CDSs).

Motability Operations currently holds £4.2 billion in reserves, although it insists that nearly all of this is held in the form of vehicles, rather than cash.

Motability Foundation* held nearly £1.8 billion in reserves on 31 March 2023, although it says only about £500 million of this was available to spend on grant-making. He went on to state “She has been a Motability customer for more than 30 years.”

For more than a decade, Motability rules on awarding grants have prioritised support for disabled people in paid work, volunteering, education, and in caring roles, although there are exceptions made for those whose “circumstances make the use of a complex vehicle conversion essential for… everyday mobility.

Dunklin told Disability News Service: “I feel am being directly and indirectly discriminated against by the one organisation I believed to be about freedom and independence.”

She believes that Motability Foundation and Motability Operations should work together more closely and provide more funding for the grants programme, and “listen more to their disabled applicants. She said: “Individuals’ changes in circumstances like mine are not being met. Complex vehicles that can be driven from a wheelchair are some of the most expensive solutions that the Motability Foundation awards grants towards, costing between £20,000 and £70,000 a vehicle.”

It is of my opinion that Powerchair users are being discriminated against by a Motability Foundation for not working/ volunteering or having extensive hospital appointments! This needs to be reported so the general public aware of what Motability Foundation are doing to their Powerchair user applicants morally, as we require complex, costly adaptations.

* John Pring from 'The Disability News Service' has given permission to quote his online article dated 15 August 2024

Retired Paralympian calls for multi-billion Motability reserves to fund more grants for high-cost vehicles"