Made out of flash. A supplement coursework for my course; Graphic design.
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Scam of the free BMWs for thousands as friends and relatives of the disabled use luxury ‘Motability’ cars

The article – which sparked a lot of anger in me – discussed two (supposed) issues:

1. Non-disabled friends or relatives using cars acquired through the Government funded Motability scheme for their own use;
2. The fact that a number of disabled individuals have acquired “luxury” cars through the scheme; (so what?)

As a quadriplegic wheelchair user myself, I am now going to sieve through the dirt of poor journalism to shine some much needed light on the matter of the Motability scheme. First we need to ask:

Are the non-disabled really abusing the system?

The answer to this, unfortunately, is quite possibly. The Motability scheme provides those who are entitled to disability payments with £51.40 each week, in order so that they can lease a vehicle (or pay towards thir own vehicle costs outsode of the Motability scheme). This vehicle is to be used by the disabled person in question (if this is physically possible) and one other nominated individual only. Further drivers can be appropriated but official application for such must occur first.

Research by the Evening Standard however – quoted by the Daily Mail – suggested that Motability cars are being used by non-nominated individuals in “up to 50% of cases.” It is hard to determine if someone driving a Motability vehicle at any given time is doing so for their own benefit. This is because it is easy for drivers to claim that they are completing some shopping on behalf of the individual registered as disabled should they be pulled over. You would hope that any failure to produce the required paperwork would see said driver landing themselves in hot water and if not, this needs to be policed far more effectively.

Whether the system is being abused or not (and it is incredibly stupid to make such claims based on a single piece of research alone), Motability is very much a system that needs to be in place for the good of the UK’s disabled community.

Spouting negativity in regards to Motability is most damaging to the reputation of the scheme (which costs approximately £1.4billion to run every year), especially when the government has recently passed through the most recent Welfare Reform Bill. This means that the public are currently scrutinising the use of taxpayer’s money more than usual.

Has Motability given the Disabled a taste for luxury?

The Daily Fail – I mean; Mail – also suggested that the Motability scheme is a “scam” because a number of disabled drivers have acquired motors which could be considered to be “luxury” through the aid, including BMW 3 series models, Audi A4s and Land Rover Discoverys.

It should be made clear however that whilst the weekly allowance of £51.40 will allow someone with a disability to acquire a vehicle for purposes of improved mobility, this is not enough to secure a model from the more lucrative end of the scale. For the BMW models currently listed in Mobility’s vehicle guide, a deposit ranging from £1,399 to £9,999 is necessary (in addition to the weekly instalments).

In no way do such deposits came from the pockets of the taxpayer!

Giving the impression that disabled people are cruising down the streets donning sunglasses whilst internally laughing at the public because they have secured a “luxury car” when they are extremely unlikely to be in their disabled condition through choice (instead, this usually arises as a result of unwelcome, adverse circumstances) is disgusting in my eyes.

Make Motability means tested?

To ensure that the Motability scheme is not abused in the future, I would suggest that funding becomes means tested. Without giving too much away, I can reveal that I am self-sufficient and not dependant upon the stateso I may be shooting myself in the foot by suggesting this. But I am compassionate enough to understand that a disabled person who is currently unemployed would be in more need of financial help from the scheme than I.
This is because I – unlike the (surprisingly unnamed) author of the more-than-a-tad-fabricated news article – also understand that having to rely on a Motability car is not a perk of living with a disability.

How would you feel Mr Anonymous journalist?

How would the author feel if they were forced into my position for even a week? Relying on the man power of your upper arms and the wheels beside your feet in order to get around is far from easy like so many people seem to wrongly assume.

Walking Back from your local Tesco store with a couple of bags of shopping is usually not too much of a challenge for someone who is fully able bodied (and therefore has a limb or two spare to put to use) but can you imagine trying to balance these same bags on your lap whilst pushing the wheels of your chair against the friction of the pavement? When you are a wheelchair user, getting on and off of public transport is quite the rigmarole – hopping on a bus is not often an easy option.

Financial cuts to the scheme would be disastrous for me and others in a similar position.

Clear Conclusion

I am just one disabled individual outraged by the Daily Mail article. Such negative commentary serves to undervalue the great good that the scheme does for many disabled individuals within the UK. I can understand why newspapers rely on yellow journalism but this is wholly irresponsible when it puts charitable schemes like Motability at risk.

Besides this, whilst I might be disabled this does not necessarily mean that I have poor taste in cars! Whilst many disabled people will opt for a Toyota Yaris, a Citroen Berlingo or a Renault Kangoo, why shouldn’t I have Citroen Picasso when the deposit for such came out of my own damn pocket?

The post was from a fellow wheelchair user who was using sport as a focus of how those of us that suffer a life-changing spinal injury can rehabilitate using sport.

In fairness I can see what the author was trying to say, however for me offering sport to disabled people is no substitute to returning to somewhat of a normal life, after all, not all of us who break their necks or their backs are Premiership footballers, trained athletes or indeed table tennis players!

For example, in 1991 before I broke my neck I had a job, it was not the best job in the world, but it was a job. Yet, following my neck break I promptly lost my job, all because I could not stand-up (wrong on all counts). The job I had at that time was not physical, it was a sales job, and yes I was bloody good at it. Let’s not forget, I did not suffer brain damage, my mind still worked in the same way, I could still talk, I could still think, yes I could still sell. Yet the perception was that because I was sitting down, that I could not do that job, how wrong was that? I will discuss the feeling in more detail of losing your job (which was/is the same as being kicked in the balls whilst on the ground) another time.

Yes folks, I was placed on the scrapheap, simply because I had to sit down to get around, quite frankly it is a diabolical situation.

My Problem with Sport for Wheelchair Users

Actually, I don’t necessarily have a problem with disabled people doing sport; after all, sport can be a great way to gain focus and to have a sense of belonging. No, that is not my problem, the problem/beef/complaint/annoyance I have is that once you become dependant upon a wheelchair, you are on the work scrapheap, no one wants to touch you. In  the 20 years I have been in a wheelchair various Governments have come and gone, and all have said the same thing, “We will get disabled people into work”. Yeh, right, so how is that going to happen when disabled people are not given the same rights as everyone else? Personally, I would much rather have a sense of belonging via working, rather than training for the Paralympic Games.

Do you know one of the main reasons why I had to start my own company? It’s because people with disabilities were and still are discriminated against when it comes to gaining employment, and that is a FACT.

Disabled Sport is Dull

I for one will not be switching on to the Paralympic Games in 2012. For one I find disabled sport about as interesting as painting the Fife Bridge with a toothbrush, and for two, I would far rather be in employment and earning a living rather than indulging in a farcical parade that endears itself to those who are glad they are not disabled themselves. The only exception to the ‘disabled sport is crap’ rule is basketball. I actually do think the guys (and girls) that play wheelchair basketball are pretty skilled, and fair play to them. The fact that basketball is as dull as painting  the Humber Bridge with a toothbrush is another matter, I do concede though, this is one disabled sport where a true competitive nature can evolve. Even so, you would have to give me a winning jackpot ticket for the Euro Lottery for me to want to think about watching it.

Wheelchair Basketball – The exception to the rule – disabled sport is awful

Table Tennis Turn Off

One of the main reasons I am so against disabled sport is being patronised. I vividly remember being at my spinal unit in Salisbury, the physios had a arranged  a table tennis afternoon. Now, I played table tennis all throughout school and at my old youth club. Whilst I was no master, I was ok. But according to the idiots that were ‘supervising’ us that afternoon, they were trying to tell me how to play the game! WTF? It was at that moment that I knew active sport was no longer for me. I simply could not be bothered with do-gooder able bodied people telling me how to play the blasted game of table tennis, because as sure as eggs are eggs, there is no way in this world, this stupid old fool would have been so damned patronising when I was walking!

How the world can change in 6 months; from playing football on a hot summers day at Goring Gap with half a six-pack in front of lots of gorgeuous women, to sitting in a wheelchair in awful looking navy blue tracking bottoms on a cold, wet afternoon in November being told how to pick-up a table tennis bat, good grief, what a fall from grace!

Job’s First then Sport

My sentiments will split people’s opinions. There are so many people that are victims of life changing incidents each year. But I ask the question, “Why should I be treated any differently simply because I have a disability?” Take my job for example, I happen to very bloody good at what I do, but would I be in that position if I had not started my own business? Now that is a really interesting question, and one that deserves greater attention. In the here and now, I really suggest that authorities look at how and why disabled people are still discriminated against in the workplace, and only when discrimination is abolished and disabled people are given an equal opportunity to work will those who think sport is their saviour, know that it is the Governments way of a cop-out that simply keeps the status quo.

Feel free to read the thoughts of Jonathan Bell (A former soldier) and how disabled sport has helped him – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11886716

It’s no wonder I can never park in a disabled space when there are so many people who are extracting the urine!

See the original post on fraudulent claims on the BBC

Prior to me being very busy as SEO Director at Fresh Egg, I did spend a lot of my time and energy getting worked up about the amount of abuse of disabled parking. In fact there was many a time did I enter into arguments with people who really had no right to be parked in disabled bays.

There is LARGE abuse of the blue badge scheme

LARGE Blue Badge abuse is rife

In all honesty, I personally feel that any ‘able-bodied’ person that uses a disabled parking bay should be subjected to life in a wheelchair, just so they know what it is really like to actually need the additional space full-time.

The simple fact is this – there are too many people who abuse disabled parking privileges, and too many people who have blue badges that simply should not have them. The blue badge abusers know who they are, there are no names that I can attach, because for one, I don’t know them personally, and two, there are LARGE numbers of them, and chewing the FAT doesn’t seem to get anywhere or appeal to their THICKER nature.

A blue badge is not a perk

There is a misconception that a disabled blue badge is a perk. Yes, I’ll repeat that, some consider a blue badge to be a perk, which is well WIDE of the mark! Let me tell you straight, a blue badge is not a perk, and it should never be seen as such. Nor should a blue badge be seen as a BIG and clever way of abusing the system just to get closer to shops.

The whole blue badge scheme needs a serious overhaul. Personally speaking I could  not give a monkey’s about parking close to the shops, all I want is the extra space to get my wheelchair out and up. For those that abuse the system I would have an entry-level fine of £10,000. An enforceable fine of this magnitude is the only way to help deter the people who are doing nothing other than abusing the system.

Unfortunately, blue badge abuse is BIG, but it certainly is not clever.

For those who don’t know the Motability car, you recieve a car (if desired) for 3 years. There is a ‘fair wear and tear’ policy for people like me who inadvertedly bash cars getting a wheelchair in and out each day. But fair wear and tear does not include mindless numpties with nothing better to do than trash other people’s property.

Thankfully Royal Sun Alliance have given me a ‘get out of jail’ letter for when I return the car to Motability next week. This letter has saved me paying an excess fee, and prevented me from being clobbered with an expensive repair bill to correct the damage. Unfortuantely I have no doubt that in 3 years time I will probably be writing the same thing where another mindless numpty (if not the same one) has probably done exactly the same thing.

There is no chance of me offending the idiot who caused the damage, as someone who causes this type of mindless damage cannot possibly read. In fact it would not surprise me if their mother still has to dress them each morningas well as change their nappies prior to their regular visits to the benefit office to collect their weekly Sky TV subscription.

Oh what a world we live in!

See the off-road wheelchair for yourself.

So, just as I rolled up to the offices, our Chairman Mr James Caan was also making his way in. Seeing me and my four wheels loitering outside, James promptly volunteered (with FE MD who was back from trying to find another willing volunteer) to hoink me up the stairs and into the offices. So there you go, yesterday I got my lift from a Dragon – cheers James, I hope your back was alright this morning?

So I am actually busting for a leak, stuck in a traffic jam in London (The conjestion charge really works) and wanting to get to Hanover Square as I knew a big store that had a disabled toilet. I’ll do another blog on the inedequaces of London for wheelchair users another time. The fact it took 90 minutes to travel two miles from Euston to Regents Street is an absolute joke in itself.

Point of the matter is this – our Capital city has a woeful supply of wheelchair accessible toilets. To think we have the Paralympics in three years time is a frightening prospect, god help them in London!

Now, I am not going to name the department store in question, but lets put it this way, you will find a number of ‘celebrities’ frequenting it, my last visits have yielded a glimpse of Zoe Ball, Professor Lord Robert Winstone and June Sarpong.

I left Adam (Fresh Egg MD) downstairs at the front of the store letting him know I would be back in a few minutes. Unfortunately for Adam, I was gone fo half an hour, because I had to wait for Mr & Mrs Can’t Wait to finish their business in one of the few disabled toilets that I am aware of in this part of London. By the time I got out Adam had gone and was convinced he would have to get a train back to Worthing.

Twenty minutes of fun

Hey, I’m not a complete moaning old windbag; who’s to say I would not have done exactly the same thing if opportunity knocked? I would say the couple in question had a great time, based on how happy they looked when they came out. I could say “I’m not having it”, but that could be taken too literally. But why is it that I have to wait until their fun and pleasure had come to an end? I was bursting myself, but for very different reasons.

Lucky Escape

Unfortunately, I did not get to say my piece to Love’s Young Dream, I was just on my way to the lift some 20 yards away when the fulfilled couple popped out back into the real world. Had I been closer I can assure you I would of said a few choice words and possibly taken a picture to really polish off this post.

The point is this – it is another sad statistic in the bigger picture that disabled people are an after thought and that facilities that are in place to assist those members of society that are less fortunate than others are simply abused.

Toilet Keys

Now, I moaned my backside off with regard an incident at Moto Services, Pease Pottage recently, where I had to ask for a key to use a toilet, so on a different day I can see why the scheme can work. I will tackle this subject with a separate post. At least though the couple would not have been able to prevent me from using the toilet as required with my big silver RADAR key. Perhaps, there should be a separate toilet lock scheme for those people who cannot keep it in their pants.

The other side of the fence

I know I am in the minority, but I don’t want pity, or sorrow or sympathy. All I and other disabled people want is the same rules that everyone else gets; unfortuantely that is not the case.

More wheelchair discrimination

I had a cracking night at Bar Ten in Worthing on Saturday night. I was out with friends for a 30th Birthday party and had a pass from her indoors; it was almost a perfect night, so what’s the problem you may ask?

Here’s the problem, if I had been on my own I would not have been able to get in the Bar Ten, Worthing to carry on the festivities after a meal at Toto’s (a Spanish Restaurant).

Bloke in wheelchair needs rent a crowd

So why is it the normal able-bodied world perceives that disabled people have to go everywhere with ‘rent-a-crowd’ to enjoy themselves?

I’ll tell you why, it’s because businesses are so blinkered when it comes to disability. With regards Ten, it goes without saying the venue cannot seem to recognise that people in wheelchairs are capable of drinking on their own as well.

So why can I not get into Ten on my own?

a) There is no wheelchair ramp
b) The bouncers refuse to assist as they are not covered by insurance

Now, I have to be careful of what I say next, but aren’t pub doorman not supposed to be hard men? Well perhaps they were 10 years ago but give me a break. In fact since when did pub doormen go PC? Can anyone let me know?

I cannot imagine The Guv’nor Lenny McLean (a proper hard man, not an impostor) not helping a bloke in a wheelchair – what a joke!

To be fair though it is not the fault of a pub doorman (used to be hard men) that red tape prevents them from helping someone into Ten, no this is the fault of the following:

a) The owners of Ten, who it would seem do not want the patronage of wheelchair users
b) The sad world of political correctness

Your name’s not down,
you’re not coming in wheelchair user!

A very likely scenario 1

I plan to meet friends in Worthing town centre; I get a taxi into town to meet-up, only to find that I cannot get into the pub and my phone is out of charge. A counter argument could be to say why would your friends go to a pub that you cannot get into? A fair question one could say. Fact of the matter is this: unless a pub is sitting on the summit of Mount Everest, why should I not be able to get in it?

A very likely scenario 2

Let’s say that I am in town with a mate and I get distracted on my way to Ten because I bumped into an old friend and we have a quick catch-up. On arrival at Bar Ten I would not be able to get into the establishment because  there is no ramp and the ‘PC’ pub doormen will not lift the man in the wheelchair because they are not insured – what utter rubbish!

I would like to know the answer to the following: Why am I and other independent wheelchair users discriminated against?

Raking it in

Over the years the entertainment venue that is now Ten has undergone a number of changes. From Cloisters, to The Church and now Ten.

I want you to think of all the money that has been spent on refurbishing the place in the last 19 years. Do you not think a ramp and a disabled toilet could of been sorted in this time? We are not talking hundreds of thousands of pounds here for the two simple additions to this building. In fact given the money that has been spent on the venue, the cost of these two simple facilities would be neglible.

Is it the owners The Chapman Group just don’t care about wheelchair users? Perhaps a representative of the organisation would like to enlighten us all.

Ultimately wheelchair users do not want to be lifted into any establishment. Wheelchair users would like to be able to get into a pub on their own accord and spend their money at the bar without having to be belittled by asking for assistance.

Disability Discrimination Act 2005 complaint

I am now going to test the DDA legislation introduced in 2005 to back my discrimination claim. Let’s see how well the law will back me up. I’ll be honest, I won’t hold my breath, I am sure there will plenty of loopholes the owners and their solicitors will be using to worm their way out of the simple fact that Ten in Worthing discriminates against wheelchair users.