Morning all
I was diagnosed with PPMS recently and I contacted the DVLA.
I have heard back from them, and I have to renew my licence every year, instead of 3! They say I may have to use specialist controls to operate the vehicle. I don’t and I only have mild ataxia. Has anyone else experienced this? I have a copy of the form my Neuro sent them and he does not suggest anything of the kind.
Can I appeal this decision?
Any comments welcome.
Ness
Very strange. I’m on the 3 year renewal with PPMS & was stopped from driving for 3 years when I informed the DVLA.
It cost me £500 to get my licence back, as it was made out I was unsafe to drive.
2 advanced driving assessors, thought differently & now it’s the 3 year renewal norm, as far as I’m aware.
The way the government is playing around & listening to so called experts. Who knows the future. It all depends on how to raise funds, when the electric generation kicks in. Where all cars are zero emissions.
Speak to the Citizens Advice. This is yet another head scratcher.
Licences, Tax, VAT & all the other ways they squander funds, has always been happening. Since the dawn of law giving.
Good luck with the appeal & let everyone know the result.
Terry
I am also on a rolling 1 tear licence renewal.
Each year DVLA state the forms wil be sent out 3 months PRIOR to the licence expiring but this never happens.
My “current” licence ran out in November 2016 and even though I regularly chase the DVLA I am still waiting for its replacement (nearly 8 months later)
Each year they take several months to process the renewal even though I do not receive any disability support, do not need a modified vehicle and more importantly work full time as a steel fabricator in the construction industry.
My work is a varied mixture of days / nights averaging some 60 hours + per week.
I have regular work medicals and even have a confined space work “license”. (this allows working in confined spaces with restricted access / bad air and other hazards)
I have full uk airside driving licence which is renewed every 3 years (with full medical examination + driving test)
But the DVLA still can’t accept all the other employment medicals.
The bottom line is that year after year I am unable to hire a car in the uk as I do not possess a valid driving licence for the majority of each year nor can i rent a car when i go on holiday for the same reasons.
Are we being actively discriminated against by the systematic failures within the DVLA?
Are the DVLA acting outside of the disability legislation by their continued failure to process the licence renewals within a reasonable time?
PS some of my friends recently emigrated. They have now got “local” driving licences which cost around £50.00 each. These are not linked in any way to the DVLA but are valid to drive in the UK and accepted by car hire companies. Do I need to go down this route just to be able to hire a car in the UK or when abroad?
Thank you so much for your replies.
It is very suspicious on the discrimination point! I am not disabled yet and there is no guarantee that I will become so in the near future, as we are all different and MS manifests at different rates.
Maria Miller is the MP for Basingstoke, where I live. Maybe I should contact her and point this discrimination out!!! I really do not think I would get very far though, do you!
All the best
Ness
Citizens Advice is good in Stoke-on-Trent.
If you think an MP, would be better. Whatever works.
Some folks with a diagnosis of MS, just try & get mobility cars. They’re cutting budgets on everything & targeting anyone.
Anything goes in this day & age. I wonder where it all stems from.
Lazy folks, gets jealous of people with genuine problems & this is what it causes.
Someone on 100k with a chauffeur, get’s a problem & everyone else pays.
The shady folks, always win. They know people from the media, which drives all this mess.
People live in flash homes & write bounced cheques.
Stick to your guns. It will work out. If you’re right, you’re right.
The issue is the common and repeated failure of the DVLA to abide by its own rules.
In all the years that I have been on a restricted licence I have only once had the forms sent out (as DVLA claim they do) prior to the expiry of my licence.
In fact for many years it has transpired that I did not actually have a DVLA licence at all due to their failures.
My licence was formally re-instated only after giving the DVLA an ultimatum to re-instate or for me to serve legal papers on the DVLA and demand to see the top director in court in person.
Phoning them is a total waste of time except for the fact that the call is logged (time, date and duration) and thus is usable in any subsequent court case.
The issue is the continuing failures within the DVLA to allocate sufficient resources to process the driving licence applications within a reasonable time frame. This is a failure both lead from the top management of the DVLA and also not rectified by the continuing failures of the top management to act.
As with many other “public service” failures nothing will change unless there is a serious challenge made through the courts.
I am on a three year license and I received a letter from DVLA saying they were questioning my ability to drive. I had to go to my GP who also has MS. She said that even though she sent them her MRI scans which showed no further damage for twelve years, they still put her on a yearly one and restricted the vehicles she can use. She can no longer driver the mini bus for her local charity she volunteered for.
I was lucky and got another three years on my license but I do believe we are treated unfairly by the DVLA. I had to smile as I came out of the doctors and saw an elderly lady trying to park her car, she managed to hit two cars, one of them twice, as she was trying to park in a space big enough for three cars!! There is no justice!!
Last tear (2015) I got a snotty letter from the DVLA demanding that I get a medical from my doctor.
My doctor does not do medicals but the DVLA were unmoved.
Hence I had to take time off work to go and see a “locum” doctor and as the only medical they could do was a simple dementure test this was what was done.
Question 1 What day is it?
Question 2 what is the date?
Question 3 which country do you live in?
Question 4 Which county do you live in?
Question 5 had to remember 3 things for a couple of minutes.
Total waste of my time and a totally stupid loss of wages.
The current state of play is that my licence ran out in November 2016 and DVLA still cant process the replacement.
I have just renewed my UK airside driving licence for another 3 years C/W full medical.
I have numerous construction licences for driving / operating heavy plant and machinery. Each one has its own full medical and test.
I have just got a new “confined space” working licence that allows working in restricted access and / or hazardous area’s (trenches, tunnels, excavations etc).
So to summarise I can drive on UK airports and around aircraft, I can drive / operate large construction plant and machinery, I can work in trenches, tunnels, hazardous areas and at heights.
But I still can’t get my DVLA driving licence renewed.
Something is clearly wrong and it is the DVLA which is the exeption to all the other medicals / doctors and organisations who are happy for me to work.
It is absolute rubbish for your doctor to say he doesn’t do medical. The DVLA pay for the GO to do it!!! These government bodies should be held accountable for the stress they cause people who really don’t deserve it! Let’s hope it changes soon.
Just chased the DVLA up (yet again).
My application is still in the queue to be looked at. It is now 8 months since the licence expired.
Looks like yet another year without a holiday as no car hire company will hire cars out without a valid licence being presented.
Sad news. It only took me 3 years to get my licence back, after coughing up £500.
3 years time, it’s another load of crap & how much it will cost. Yay! Happy days.
apparently the DVLA actually revoked my licence for a while. Needless to say I did not know this. They re-instated it when I threatened them with legal action but clearly there are some serious problems within the DVLA organisation given the year-on-year problems processing my licence renewal.
It’s all a mine field, these days. Digital hackers & corruption to boot. You never know who’s up to what.
The best advice I can offer anyone, is stick with it. They can’t force people with a medical condition to kill themselves, so they can afford to waste money on tea parties. If legal action is needed, take it & all the best. The sad thing is, it’s the folks abusing the system, which are the cause. They’ll use any excuse possible to cover their own backs.
MS has cost me £11,500 so far. It’s a joke & it’s never ending.
You can’t go anywhere to deal with the problems, because the freaks are causing all the problems in the first place.
So long as they’re okay, it’s all that counts.
I’m about to tell dvla my husband got diagnosed ppms we worried they going stop him driving his doc said he ok and eye doc said yes should i be worried
If your Neuro & GP says he’s okay to drive DVLA will just request his driving licence so that they can check with the Neuro and adjust the end date on it. To start with my adjusted licence ran for 3 years, then the next one for 5 years. They will also alter what vehicles he can drive i.e. no buses and minibuses etc with fare paying passengers. I also told the car insurance but they weren’t really interested but thanked me for telling them.
Don’t think I’ve forgotten anything!
Tippy x