July Campaign News
Monday, July 12th, 2010
Fuel Costs
Anyone who pays to put fuel in a vehicle can’t help but have noticed how fuel prices have rocketed in the last few months. For disabled people who are totally reliant on their vehicles to get around paying these prices is unavoidable although some members have written to me saying that they are stru
ggling to pay their fuel costs. One such letter came from Mr D R Rogers from Rainham who wrote saying;
Is this progress? I suffered a disability which has prevented me from working for the last 23 years. I am almost solely dependent on benefits. Some years back people with mobility problems were allocated a blue three wheel invalid carriage, with only one seat and were unable to carry their family. These vehicles were also (I am told) unreliable, then some dedicated people campaigned and Motability was created. Wonderful.
I joined the Motability scheme and have had five vehicles through them. All praise to Motability and the dealers involved in this wonderful scheme. However, this year, long term incapacity benefit has been frozen, my total raise in income is £1.60 per week whilst the cost of fuel is allowed to skyrocket unchecked. So for those of us unable to earn or sue someone for our problems and solely dependent on benefits it looks like it will be goodbye car and back to a one seat electric scooter with limited mileage. I repeat “Is this progress?”
Perhaps we should stop bickering amongst ourselves over who is the most disabled and in most need of a disabled parking bay and concentrate our efforts on fuel prices for I fear soon there will be more than enough Blue Badge bays for the few remaining still able to afford fuel for their Motability vehicle.
Mr Rogers does make a very good point in that fuel prices have increased significantly more than benefit payments. One suggestion to tackle this issue to some degree comes from Alan Lewin who is a motorised wheelchair user. He wrote saying “Can a case be made to grant us a discount on fuel tax when totally dependent for survival on the car? My hefty motorised wheelchair won’t be carried by taxis or buses.”
This is in fact exactly what happens in the Republic of Ireland where qualifying disabled drivers and passengers are able to apply for a repayment of excise duty on fuel used in either the vehicle they drive or travel in. The maximum amount that can be claimed is 600 gallons or 2,728 litres of fuel per year. This rebate would make an enormous difference to people who have no option but to use their own vehicle.
I have presented this suggestion to the UK government in the past but the response has always been that disabled people get Disability Living Allowance to cover the extra costs of living with a disability. It is interesting to know than people living in the Republic of Ireland also get disability benefit.
Although there have been no promises by the new government to reduce fuel prices Transport Secretary Phili
p Hammond, has claimed that the coalition government will “end the war on motorists” and has promised there would be no road-user charging for existing roads and the government would consult on a measure to try to keep petrol prices down if oil prices rise.
But even if fuel prices don’t increase much more they are still very high and Mobilise would like to know if fuel costs are restricting your mobility. Please let me know what journeys you are no longer doing or if you’ve decided to give up your Motability car. If this is something Mobilise decides to campaign on we need evidence of how this is affecting you and your mobility. Write to me at the usual address on page 3 or email editor@mobilise.info .
Hospital parking
I recently attended a Parking Forum meeting to discuss the problems people experience when parking at hospitals. The aim of the Parking Forum, which meets four times a year, is to create a platform for current issues facing the parking industry to be discussed. I attend these meetings on behalf of Mobilise to make sure the views of people with disabilities are represented.
Hospital parking is something which concerns a lot of people as it causes an awful lot of anxiety and stress. To try and help the situation the consumers organisation Which? have put together 10 demands for NHS hospital car parking and two representatives attended the forum to present the research. The British Parking Association (BPA) also have a charter for Hospital Parking which makes many of the same points as the Which? report. What is also good news is that one of the demands from the Which? report is that there should be priority parking for people with mobility problems, people attending for an emergency and women in labour and this is echoed by the charter.
By working together with other organisations making the same requests, improved hospital parking for everyone will hopefully be something we can achieve a lot faster. For further information on the Which? report visit www.which.co.uk/parking .
Helen Dolphin (neé Smith) is Director of Policy and Campaigns for Mobilise.
This article first appeared in the July 2010 issue of Mobilise magazine, which goes out to all our members and includes reviews of adapted cars and mobility equipment, features on accessible travel and leisure, campaign updates, news, competitions and real-life stories.
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