Family Fund Mobility Support Frequently Asked Questions

Family Fund Mobility Support is a grants programme that aims to help families raising a disabled or seriously ill child under three years old, to meet their mobility needs through a car-leasing package for a limited period.

The national Motability programme is open to anyone who receives a qualifying mobility allowance. However, Families are not able to claim this until their child is three years old. Family Fund is running this programme to give the families that need it, support for their babies and young children, by providing a grant for a lease car to meet their mobility needs.

The support is discretionary. Family Fund reserve the right to decide who gets support through the programme as funding is limited. The funding is also independent of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) / Child Disability Payment (CDP), which are not related to this programme.

The programme is open to families who have a child under three years old, who meet Family Fund eligibility criteria. And where nobody else in the household already leases a vehicle though the national Motability programme.

The child’s parent or carer, or someone involved in the child’s care must have a current UK driving licence, and say ‘yes’ to the child having:

• a need for substantial equipment due to their conditions or treatment. Such as a mobility aid, require regular oxygen or suction machine or require other bulky monitoring or medical equipment, or
• an immune suppressing condition or treatment resulting in medical emergency and prohibits travelling on public transport, or
• high levels of pain or physical condition that impacts their mobility needs, or
• an unstable condition requiring frequent unexpected emergency inpatient treatment, or
• a significant number of appointments on a frequent basis at multiple different treatment centres, related to their condition

You will need to apply to Family Fund to see if you meet our disability and household criteria. We will also need to collect information from you about your child’s mobility circumstances, to see if we are able to provide the Family Fund Mobility Support.  

We will then introduce you to Motability Operations Limited so they can check to see if they can put together a package to meet your child’s specific needs. They will also check you are legally able to drive a car etc.

After the checks, a car lease will be provided by Motability Operations Limited. They are responsible for meeting the needs you have when transporting your child, using Family Fund Mobility Support.

You will need to sign a credit hire agreement (regulated hire agreement) for the lease of the car. The cost of this (if successful) will be met by Family Fund.

If you are raising a disabled or seriously ill child under the age of three, and think you might be eligible for Family Fund Mobility Support, please use the form below to find out more:

If you are not able to access the internet, you can call our First Contact team on 01904 550055.

To find out more about Family Fund Mobility Support, you can email our dedicated team via: [email protected].

If you would like to speak to someone about Family Fund Mobility Support, call 01904 550010. We are open Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 5:00pm.

Terms and conditions: Before you apply, you must make sure that you have read, and are happy with, the terms and conditions of the programme. If you need help with this, please call our Family Fund Mobility Support team on 01904 550010. We are open Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 5:00pm.

We cannot accept an application until the terms and conditions have been accepted by you.

Family Fund Mobility Support is additional to other Family Fund grant programmes. If you have applied within the last three months, and think that you might be eligible for Family Fund Mobility Support, get in touch and we will see if we can help. If you have applied to Family Fund prior to this time, we may need to assess your eligibility again, for this programme. It does not affect any current grant application or award from Family Fund. It also does not affect any future application to Family Fund.

Family Fund Mobility Support is used to lease a car. You will need to agree to a lease agreement which will include:

• Vehicle road tax
• Car insurance
• Servicing  
• Repairs and maintenance
• Breakdown cover
• Running costs
  

You will be responsible for:

•  fuelling the car
• any parking violation fines
• zone/congestion charges (see blue badge exemptions)
• Keeping the car in good condition
  

Please note that the entirety of the lease agreement (including insurance, servicing covers etc) will stop at the end of your agreed lease. The end date of your lease will be stated on the documents you receive from Motability.

The Blue Badge programme provides a range of parking benefits for disabled drivers and passengers. These are issued by your local authority.

You will need to apply for a blue badge independently from Family Fund Mobility Support. Visit the GOV.UK website for information about who can get and apply for a Blue Badge.

We can help with a wheelchair accessible vehicle in some circumstances. Please enquire, and when we review the information, we will let you know if we can meet your needs.

Only one named driver under the age of 21 is permitted. This could be you, or another driver living at the same address.

Drivers under the age of 25 can only drive cars with a lower insurance group and brake horsepower.

Don’t worry, we can still help with a short-term package if your child is under two years eleven months old.

If your child is over the age of two years and six months you can apply for the high rate mobility component of DLA/CDP now. An organisation called Contact have a helpful guide on how to claim DLA for children or the Child Disability Payment on their website.

If your child is over three years old you do not meet criteria for this programme. If you are receipt of the higher rate mobility element of DLA/CDP for your child, then you may wish to contact Motability to find out about their main programme.

Family Fund or Motability Operations Limited will not collect more information than is needed. They will not keep your information for longer than is needed, or pass on your personal details or information to any third party, without your consent. More information about how Family Fund processes your personal data can be found in our privacy policy.

Family Fund cannot provide you with a regulated (credit) hire agreement for the lease of a vehicle. Therefore we introduce you to Motability Operations who can.