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TAKING THE PIP
Taxpayers funded my £21k car – it only cost me a £1k & I’m trolled by jealous working people but it’s not my problem
Next year she'll be allowed to upgrade her already posh motor
PULLING her £21,000 white Renault Kadjar into a carpark, Chelsea Lealand, 28, jumps out and waves to her three other mum friends.
Taking advantage of the early spring sunshine, the group are having a pre-Easter catch-up.
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“Posh car - did you borrow it?” asks one friend, immediately spotting Chelsea’s vehicle - a far cry from her former car, a secondhand Ford Fiesta which cost £700.
“No - it’s mine,” says Chelsea. “And I didn’t even have to get a job. I paid just £1,000 for it.”
Chelsea, a single mum to a girl, nine, and sons, six and 15 months, from Nottingham, ‘earned’ the car under the Government’s Motability Scheme.
Claimants weren’t just leasing any old car but posh vehicles including Skoda Kodiaqs, a family motor which is typically worth £36,000 but is available on Motability for £3,299. They also get expensive extras such as insurance including tyre and windscreen replacement cover, breakdown cover, vehicle tax and servicing as part of the deal.
Read more in Motability
Why should I drive an 'old banger?'
Chelsea - whose middle son has autism - says it’s absolutely correct that she should get a cheaper vehicle… even if it is eye-wateringly posh.
“Why should a mum-of-three on Universal Credit drive an old banger?” she asks.
“My kids deserve to ride in style. I’d have never been able to afford this working as a hairdresser.”
“It’s like having a brilliant car without all the huge cost of upkeep. I pay £75 for fuel each week. That’s it. I’m not a scrounger.
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"If you have an issue, blame the government. I deserve it. I know it’s posher than what most people can afford but that doesn’t matter.”
10 PIP freebies worth up to £40k
Single Chelsea, who left school with seven GCSEs and a college diploma in hairdressing, worked as a stylist when she fell pregnant aged 20 with her first baby in 2016.
She returned to her job after a year, but after her second baby arrived in 2019, when she was 23, left work permanently.
“Balancing employment and childcare left me earning just £8 a day,” she says. “It made more sense to claim benefits.”
In April 2020 she applied for Universal Credit, a benefit which includes housing benefit, standard adult allowance, child element and disabled child allowance as well as a DLA mobility component, and was awarded £2,966.
Chelsea's £37k annual incomings:
Housing Benefit: £451.12
Standard Allowance £393.45,
Child Element capped: £621,25
Child Benefit: £208
Disabled Child Allowance: £497.58
DLA Motability Scheme: £303
DLA care allowance high rate: 434.20
Healthy Start Voucher: £4.25 a month (for youngest child)
School Meals: Free (for two children)
Prescriptions: Free
Glasses and eye tests: Free
NHS Travel: Free
Food Vouchers: £100 annually
Fuel Voucher: £98 annually
Cold Weather Payment: £25 for each 7 day period the temperature slips below 0c
Internet: Discounted price
Cost of Living Payment 2022-24: £1,550
But her total benefits actually total significantly more - £3,100 or £37,200 annually - because they include free school meals, prescriptions and her cut-price car.
She was awarded the car in January 2022 and chose her specific one because it’s “iconic”.
“It includes automatic high-beam adjustment, rear passenger seat ventilation, heated door mirrors, 19-inch alloys, front and rear parking sensors, and rear parking camera as well as a seven-inch infotainment screen offering touchscreen display and connectivity options such as Bluetooth, app accessibility and USB,” she says. “It also includes a DAB radio. “I wanted the best for my kids and a car which was easy to drive.
Trolled by 'jealous working mums'
“The kids love the car, and it makes shopping so much easier.”
As well as not paying for the car, Chelsea doesn’t have to “fork out for insurance or repairs.” She continues: “It means I can focus on the kids, not the car.”
Chelsea, who has been trolled by “jealous working mums” says the car is a big reason she’s “not going back to work anytime soon.”
“People might slam me but I won’t be criticised for driving a car most working Brits can’t afford,” she says. “I was allowed to apply for it and, yes, I got it.
“Working people with disabilities can do the same. I understand why some people might be annoyed but I urge them to research the scheme and understand why it is there and who can apply.
How to claim Child Benefit
Child benefit is worth up to £1,331 a year for your first or only child and up to £881 a year for additional children.
This works out at £102.40 every four weeks or £25.60 a week for your first child and £67.80 every 4 weeks or £16.95 a week for their siblings.
There is no limit on the number of children that can be claimed for.
Applying is straightforward and can be done in minutes at gov.uk or through the HMRC app.
Parents with a newborn baby should make a claim online as soon as possible and could then receive their first payment in as little as three days.
You can also backdate claims for up to three months.
Parents can make a claim and then choose to opt out of receiving Child Benefit payments can still receive National Insurance credits if one parent is not working.
National Insurance credits build up your entitlement to the state pension.
“I am planning to get an even posher one when I upgrade. I am due an upgrade this year.
“Under the scheme the car cannot be any older than three years old. So after the car is three years old you get a new one for the next three years.”
She also thinks Motability vehicles should be available to all single mums on Universal Credit - despite the extortionate impact this would have on Britain’s already bloated budget.
“Many single mums have no transport and cannot juggle two or three kids on public transport,” she says. “Cars for single parents on Universal Credit would mean less isolation, less depression and anxiety and encourage mums and dads to have easy access to job interviews.
“I won’t have anyone complain I shouldn't have one. I will not give it up. It’s my right. The car has been a lifeline. For many people buying a new car often comes after months of savings and involves expensive loans.
Sick of 'benefits trolls'
“People on Universal Credit don't have the expendable income to save for a car or to fund the loan repayments.
“A car under £1,000 would require a lot more repairs and cause claimants to fall deeper into debt.
“The cheap deals are available to those who work but can claim PIP too. I refuse to be taken down by the benefits trolls. They’re just jealous of my car.
“No one is stopping you from applying for a freebie car if you or one of your family qualifies.
“It’s not my job to keep other people happy or balance the government’s budget.”
Chelsea’s case is not unique. In the past six years the number of people claiming either PIP (PIP) or Disability Living Allowance (DLA) has risen by 194%. 1.3 million people or 44 per cent of all claimants suffered mental health or behavioural conditions as their primary reason for claiming disability benefits.
And almost 815,000 Brits are benefiting from the Motability Scheme.
“The fact I can get a car is actually helping the British economy,” says Chelsea. “I looked it up. The Motability scheme helps the car industry because one in four cars on the road are from the scheme. Without it and my car the economy would suffer.
“I do not know why people are moaning.”
The scheme allows drivers access to a range of vehicles including a Fiat 500.
Could it be the end of the road for Motability?
By Martina Bet
MOTABILITY allows people with serious disabilities to lease a car using their benefits.
Customer numbers have surged 30 per cent in five years, with many joining for non-physical conditions such as anxiety, depression and ADHD.
But the firm’s tracking systems have uncovered late-night runs and non-disabled relatives regularly using the vehicles.
Motability said it will now review how many people can use each vehicle — currently set at three to allow for carers.
Chief executive Andrew Miller warned tougher checks are coming.
He added: “Are we perhaps being too generous on the insurance criteria?
"We’re having to look at that quite heavily at the moment.”
Around 815,000 people now use the Motability scheme, with more than 700,000 vehicles on the road.
“If I had to work there is no way I could make almost £2,500 net a month, especially working around my children’s school schedules,” says Chelsea. “The jobs are not there. I would have to pay full council tax, pay for prescriptions and lose a raft of other discounts. I cannot work because I would be worse off financially and end up back on benefits.
“It doesn't make me work shy or lazy, it's a simple maths equation. Labelling me a scrounger is wrong because I won't work. I am not broken. I am simply outspoken and brazen about stating the reality of life.
“The government has created a system which permits people to get financial aid, the cost of living means people are spending less on services like hairdressers and the jobs are not out there.
“I am a grafter. I have to be as I look after three kids day and night. It's a full-time job. But I am just not daft. It’s more financially viable for me to be on benefits. Better solutions are needed and labelling people lazy isn't one of them.
“I am dead sick of people telling me not to be a single mum or have kids so young.
“It’s no one’s business and I won’t work until I can be assured the work will earn me more than Universal Credit.
Read More on The Sun
“As to Motability Scheme haters they can p*** off. My posh wheels are staying. I need my car.”
An earlier version of this article, now amended, incorrectly said that 51% of applicants for Motability who had depression were successful, as were 35% of people on PIP for 'bedwetting' and 66% of agoraphobics. These were in fact the proportions who successfully claimed PIP; not all of these individuals are eligible for Motability.
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