Motability Grant

Middleton

Hi
I was accepted for a Motability Grant, on Oct 5 22... and just collected my vehicle today(28/1/23) Handed previous Motability vehicle over!

The dealership manager stated that the grant had expired. It had gone over the 3 months date...But surely given the present worldwide vehicle delays. Many people with grants will have their grants expire!
Not sure if uts fortunate or not, given the circumstances i now find myself in. But the manager at the dealership allowed me to still take the vehicle. With a view of me contacting Grants Monday morning.

I could end up with losing my previous vehicle(which i have already) and now losing this new one. If grants make me reapply.

And how has anyone, given the present climate.Managed to obtain a new vehicle within 3 months?. Mine had to be ordered and built from scratch. And there were multiple delays, outside of anyones control

What on earth do i do, if grants dont honour the grant?

poppy123456

It’s concerning that the dealer allowed you to take the vehicle knowing the grant had expired. 

All you can do at this stage is contact motability on Monday morning when they open. 

There’s also a one time new vehicle payment that’s been increased from £250 to £750 which you will receive, so if the worst happens and that covers the advance payment then you can put that towards it. 

Middleton

poppy123456 said:

It’s concerning that the dealer allowed you to take the vehicle knowing the grant had expired. 

All you can do at this stage is contact motability on Monday morning when they open. 

There’s also a one time new vehicle payment that’s been increased from £250 to £750 which you will receive, so if the worst happens and that covers the advance payment then you can put that towards it. 

Thanks for reply!

Regrettably(though good news-£750) it would go nowhere near to rectifying the Advance payment costs; as the AP grant was for £2,495.  Not only do i stand to lose the new lease car, but also my previous car!(which had i known all this was going to happen, i could have kept for another 2yrs)  

Just genuinely cannot believe the situation i'm in right now!..But as you mentioned, i'll be calling M Grants team Monday. 

The strange thing is! On my Motability grants attach, when i was awarded it last Oct. Theres a paragraph that suggests one places an order asap, that way, should the AP increase later on, the price at order will remain the same. And to order asap, even if the vehicle expected date is very far away(given the known world wide issue with obtaining a vehicle these days)

Yet ironically, they appear to have only given me a 3 month window...i only went over that, through no fault of my own(as the vehicle was built from scratch, with multiple delays).. i only went over by 3 weeks!  it just seems so unnecessarily concerning, and placed me in a real dilemma!  

Hence why i'm still up at 1:19am!

Anways! ...i'll update Monday, see how this all pans out.

Alex_Alumni

Please do update us when you can @Middleton, I know it's hard but try to put it to the back of your mind today. I am sorry to read about what's happened, and I hope you can get some help and support! 

poppy123456

I've had experience with motability grants but not for advance payments so can't offer any advice as the process is different.

I'm very surprised that the person you dealt with at the dealers didn't know the process because they should have experience in dealing with this sort of thing.

Middleton

poppy123456 said:

I've had experience with motability grants but not for advance payments so can't offer any advice as the process is different.

I'm very surprised that the person you dealt with at the dealers didn't know the process because they should have experience in dealing with this sort of thing.

Your last comment, i also thought. As the very pleasant dealer(whom ive had a pleasure dealing with) has over 20yrs experience with MScheme/grants..So it would seem very odd if he didnt know whats what!

I'll attempt to stop whittling over this now, as the only conclusion, will occur tomorrow when i call.

poppy123456

Were you able to contact them?

Middleton

poppy123456 said:

Were you able to contact them?

Yep!... although its still doesnt seem clear cut.

I passed on the Grant assessors contact number to the Dealership.

I'll be calling the gentleman, tomorrow..(as he was off today), and letting him know the grants team number, also, as ive not received any reply from the Dealership today.

So, i called the grants team ,but the gentleman who gave me the grant wasnt available either.

So all of the above, have yielded no clear results.

The only clear and somewhat reassuring info i received today, was from the Motability scheme.

As you'll know!; the grants team are a different company, but Motability can see all of their activities concerning the grant, and as far as MScheme are concerned, it appears to have been processed and paid.

Im not even sure if what ive typed, is making any sense 🤨😊, but thats literally how today has  panned out!

I'm taking the fact that M scheme are stating,that its been paid ,as "its all ok!"... but still,.i'm kind of still in Limbo!.. until i can directly speak to the dealership, that think that its not been paid. Something weird is amiss here!

I'll update tomorrow, with what im sure will be much more clarifying information. 

(ps..do you know when people are receiving the £750, for new vehicle ,cost of living payment? is it March?......Addendum!   Just found thats its at the end of Feb!

poppy123456

Sounds like the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.

The £750 new vehicle payment for you will be in 2 parts. £250 first and then the extra £500 will be paid from the start of March, as that extra payment was only recently announced. https://news.motability.co.uk/scheme-news/new-vehicle-payment-introduced/

The first cost of living payment of £301 is due this spring but no exact dates have been confirmed yet. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-of-low-income-households-to-get-new-cost-of-living-payments-from-spring-2023

Middleton

poppy123456 said:

Sounds like the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.

The £750 new vehicle payment for you will be in 2 parts. £250 first and then the extra £500 will be paid from the start of March, as that extra payment was only recently announced. https://news.motability.co.uk/scheme-news/new-vehicle-payment-introduced/

The first cost of living payment of £301 is due this spring but no exact dates have been confirmed yet. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-of-low-income-households-to-get-new-cost-of-living-payments-from-spring-2023

Still no further forward!

I have a quick question!... Do the Motability scheme, purchase and own the Vehicle outright? or are they simply leasing it from the dealership?

poppy123456

The scheme purchace the vehicles which are then leased to the customers. Puchasing the vehicles is funded by the scheme.

https://www.motability.org.uk/media/f42p5cgk/factsheet-3-how-the-motability-scheme-is-funded.pdf

Middleton

Update!

Received call today, from the Grant manager. Was informed that they were surprised the Skoda dealership asked me to get involved. And reassured me that there is no issue at all!

So it appears the Skoda dealership have oddly involved myself, when all they had to do was contact Motability operations.

I'm still waiting after a week for this dealership to update the 'MySkoda' app for me. Despite calling twice this week.
Also, consider the fact ,that the person who dealt with the order of the vehicle, has over 20yrs experience with Motability. 
Which causes me to wonder how on earth they didnt know how to deal with a Grant?


In truth, ( I simply refuse to worry about this dealership going forward, as I'll defer any issues to Motability) it is somewhat, disconcerting!.

Couldnt personally fault Seat , whom i dealt with over the last 3+yrs!  just a shame the Ateca didnt have certain specs needed, otherwise i would never have looked at the Skoda.

durhamjaide2001

Thanks for the update 

Alex_Alumni

I'm glad you've got some clarity @Middleton I can understand why you feel disconcerted.

I remember when I ordered my second Motability car from the same dealer, they let me know it had arrived, only to explain they'd forgotten to order/fit the adaptions I needed! I had to wait a week or so, and was given some money for a nice meal in compensation, but it does make you wonder what was going on when they knew I was a Motability customer. 

I hope you get your Skoda sorted soon  

Middleton

Alex_Scope said:

I'm glad you've got some clarity @Middleton I can understand why you feel disconcerted.

I remember when I ordered my second Motability car from the same dealer, they let me know it had arrived, only to explain they'd forgotten to order/fit the adaptions I needed! I had to wait a week or so, and was given some money for a nice meal in compensation, but it does make you wonder what was going on when they knew I was a Motability customer. 

I hope you get your Skoda sorted soon  

Ouch!!  

At least you had a nice meal right!! 😁

Glad you got sorted out in the end also.👍

Alex_Alumni

Yes, they were very apologetic and embarrassed, probably just a bad day at the office. And I certainly made the most of it, had a lovely cocktail with the meal and everything!    

poppy123456

I test drove a Skoda before i decided on my current car and i found the mobility advisor at their dealers very unfriendly and they gave me the impression they couldn't really be bothered.. i never returned.