Campaigners are calling for Attendance Allowance to be reformed with a new mobility element to allow claimants to access the Motability scheme. A petition on the Parliament website is calling for a mobility element similar to PIP to be added to the petition, and to allow claimants to get a Motability vehicle.
At present, the Motability Scheme is only open to PIP claimants on the higher rate for the mobility element.
The petition states: “We want the Government to reform Attendance Allowance so that people with mobility issues can get a mobility element for this benefit, and so access the Motability Scheme.
“This would bring Attendance Allowance in line with PIP and DLA. If a person receives DLA or PIP they can receive a mobility element for their benefit, and this continues once they reach State Pension age, allowing them to get a Motability Vehicle.
“A person of state pension age claiming Attendance Allowance cannot get a mobility element or get a Motability Vehicle, even when there is a need, but they cannot claim DLA or PIP as they are too old.
“We believe this is unfair discrimination and needs to be addressed.”
If the petition reaches 10,000 signatures, the Government will have to provide a response.
Attendance Allowance is a benefit for people of state pension age with a physical or mental disability, providing payments of £68.10 a week or £101.75 a week.
The advice page for the benefit on the Government states that the payment “does not cover mobility needs”.
People on the benefit may be able to get extra payments through Pension Credit, Housing Benefit or reductions on their council tax as a result.
Benefit payments are increase 6.7 percent in April while the state pension is going up 8.5 percent.
With the uprating, the full basic state pension will go up from £156.20 a week to £169.50 a week. The full new state pension is increasing from £203.85 a week to £221.20 a week.
You can check how much benefits you can claim using a calculator tool such as the one on the Turn2us website.
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