Disability Equipment - rip off ?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Why is it, any equipment that's used to help folk with disabilities is suddenly massively expensive ?

My MIL needs a new chair at the care home - she needs something that reclines and is on 'wheels' so the carers, and us, can push her round the home. Now, you can get electric reclining and rising chairs for £500ish.

Her new one, that reclines (doesn't rise) is going to cost £2,800 as it's on wheels - good god !

Same goes for any parts on her wheel chair - new handles, that will be ££££'s.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
Think you can at least get VAT free
 

classic33

Leg End Member
What sort of wheel chair?

Having checked what @vickster said about VAT. It applies to "designed soley for disabled persons. May be why the price is so different. Doesn't excuse the price hike though.
 

tom73

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
Once you say NHS the price rockets even more as with most suff gov / LA buy they see them coming a mile off and it's £££££ all the way to bank.
 
OP
OP
fossyant

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
She's 'bought it' - no VAT of course. It's her money and she wants her own chair (i.e. not one of the shared chairs). She got the care home to bring someone in and she has chosen it, but it doesn't look £2.8k to me. Just such a rip off though.

TBH, given how much better she is than in February, she'll likely be with us many years now her meds are sorted, is well looked after and she can't fall - so why not.
 

Mo1959

Legendary Member
She's 'bought it' - no VAT of course. It's her money and she wants her own chair (i.e. not one of the shared chairs). She got the care home to bring someone in and she has chosen it, but it doesn't look £2.8k to me. Just such a rip off though.

TBH, given how much better she is than in February, she'll likely be with us many years now her meds are sorted, is well looked after and she can't fall - so why not.
Glad she’s spending her money if she’s got it. My dad and step mum, both now sadly deceased, died with sizeable bank accounts and could have been so much more comfortable but didn’t seem to want to spend money.
 
OP
OP
fossyant

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Glad she’s spending her money if she’s got it. My dad and step mum, both now sadly deceased, died with sizeable bank accounts and could have been so much more comfortable but didn’t seem to want to spend money.

TBH there will be nothing for the family to inherit as the nursing care fees will eat up most of the estates value in just 2 years. Its £1k a week and the NHS put in about £175 for the nursing element.

She keeps asking what she has left and we keep saying don't worry. She had refused to do a funeral plan, but given she had more cash than she needed, we paid for it outright to lose some of it.
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
TBH there will be nothing for the family to inherit as the nursing care fees will eat up most of the estates value in just 2 years. Its £1k a week and the NHS put in about £175 for the nursing element.

She keeps asking what she has left and we keep saying don't worry. She had refused to do a funeral plan, but given she had more cash than she needed, we paid for it outright to lose some of it.

Given the time the elderly spend in chairs, then the cost of a couple of grand is not a lot.
Most of us here would not blink at a similar cost for a bike, which would get a lot less use.

It's the care costs that are the real expense, I'm burning though around £75K a year at the moment for my mother, and she is still fairly mobile.
 

youngoldbloke

The older I get, the faster I used to be ...
I assume it's because of limited numbers of potential customers base and lack of competition between retailers. A lightweight manual wheelchair can easily cost over £3K, (exc VAT) once you've customised it to suit the user - specific back, cushion, skirt guards, footrests etc etc. Lightweight wheels and tyres are crazy prices - double the equivalent bike price. It is also virtually impossible to try out equipment before you buy due to the high cost of keeping all options in stock. After searching our local area for knowledgeable advice and service we now travel over 80 miles to visit a dealer who actually knows what they are doing.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
It's the same scam as school uniforms isn't it? Not built to last and expensive because there's very little or no choice.
 
Top Bottom