Today I was on a high, we were off looking at a new car and my driving license turned up in the post, what timing. I wanted to get a Peugeot 3008 Crossover so armed with the wheelchair, dog cage and crutches we went over to check it all fitted in and I could get the wheelchair in by myself. It quickly became apparent, after getting the dog cage in, that it would not go in with the wheelchair too so Cody would have to go on the back seat. We tried to get the wheelchair in but as mine is a rigid frame and only the back drops down and the wheels come off it would not fit in. If we had dropped the boot to the lowest level it would have gone in but I would have had difficulty getting it in and out on my own. There would not have been room to get anything else in the boot space, there was now a problem.
The very helpful lady at the showroom brought round the Peugeot 5008. Obviously this was more expensive but it was worth looking at. It had all the features of the 3008, the same higher seating, only 3 mpg worse fuel consumption but it was cavernous. It has 7 seats and with the back two dropped down the dog cage and wheelchair went in side by side, but it was bigger than I originally wanted. We came home for lunch to mull it all over, after much discussion and deliberating I decided to go for the 5008 in dark grey. I was told that they didn’t have any of the model and colour I wanted at any of their dealers and a factory built one would take 13 weeks. I said that I would have a silver one (which they had access to) and it would be ready in early April. We progressed to the paperwork and this is where my world just fell apart.
Part of the criteria for a Motability car is that you must have 12 months left to run on your DLA (Disability Living Allowance). When I hooked the letter out this morning I noticed it had 2013 on it and away we went. Unfortunately the expiry date is 13-02-13, that’s two lots of unlucky in that date and it was my unlucky day. They let me use the phone to contact the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions), they told me that Motability would ask them for the end date, they would have to tell them it is a short contract, it was for Motability to decide if they would proceed. I was given a number to call Motability and they told me that the terms are 12 months on the DLA and they could not accept anything less. They suggested I call DWP to see if they would extend the date a few weeks for the application to go through. We came home and my fate was with the DWP, the news was not good. I was told that the date could not be extended and the only thing I could do was ask them to review it again (just had the result from the review) but there was no guarantee they would extend the date. I would have to wait until next year to get a car, I was totally gutted and needless to say extremely upset. I am so tired of all this, fighting the Occupational Therapist for the Disability Facilities Grant and now the DWP for an extension to get a car. My plan? Well I will write and appeal letter tomorrow and see if they will be willing to extend the date. Given that I have had to wait to hear from them before I could go ahead and get a car and I didn’t receive that decision till the 26th February I would like to think they would help me out a bit. It will then be a case of letter posted, fingers crossed, sit and wait. I will know how I will feel but I will have no idea what I am going to do if I have to wait a year to get a car, I will keep you posted!
