Whether to buy a wheelchair van or not

That would be a good idea. We have handitransit here, but they only work in the city, and of course, you have to pay regular bus fare for that. But if we got a van for the church, and get someone to drive, they could help get others to church who are in power wheelchairs and cannot get to church because there is not enough handitransits, and also because even if the fare is low, they cannot afford it. And we know that Handitransit only keeps its vehicles for five years. We heard we can get vans from the States, but with the regulations, etc. it is almost impossible to get them regulated for Canada.

If you are broke how can he pay for it I still think the church should and them have the one driver so that the ins. wouldnt be that high!

He really is not broke. It is just that most of the money is in his registered retirement fund, and there is the trouble that he has to pay 50 percent taxes on it. However we have had so much hassle with the handitransit, since there is that not that many in the city and so many people who are handicapped that it seems we were forced to make this decision. The other trouble is that most of the people in power wheel had a stroke, are paraphelgic, or had diabetes or bad hearts and they do not need the extra cushion on their wheelchair and they do not feel the bottom through the foam but those with als do. Also my husband is losing his muscles and so he has to have me put his hand on the controller just so And since the medical and social service people try to rule out everything else before that, the companies who make cushions for power wheelchairs assume that you already have padding on your rear end. Right now, he can take the power wheelchair to the church down the block but the ramp and the lift are not finished yet. They hope to have it by this Sunday but they doubt it. So in the meantime, a friend of ours can get a bus that allows one handicapped person from work but just for Sunday mornings, but we have to go to the other church that is a few miles away. And my husband wants to buy the van himself. We can get a good one quite cheap, but it has to be giving a good mechanical going over first. Our friend can drive us once and if we get it for winter driving. It gets quite slushy and the snow is deep here.

He still wants to pay for it himself. There are members in the church trying to find one that is quite cheap and runs well and will drive us places, but the trouble is that there will have to be extra insurance, and each driver will need a license to drive him around. I looked at our auitopac website and it just asks form questions and not those. I know that relatives can drive each other's car around, but they will not be relatives.

That is why I am rather hesitant for my husband to buy the van himself. I do not want us to get into more debt. And the van is expensive. Even the second hand one which is the ones we were looking at or rather he had me look all over and he figured presto there is a place in Winnipeg that sells them. Well I did not see any. So we would either have to buy from Ontario, Alberta, or British Columbia and that would also include the shipping or transport charges. Now we have churches in Manitoba, Alberta, and Ontario and British Columiba so if there are handicapped vans tghere, then one of the members who has family in that area can drive it out here. Problem solved and it would then be forthe members of our church who cannot get here by other means and who cannot get handitransit because it is too busy, so if the whole congregation buys it, it is a win win situation.

My husband wants to buy it all himself, but the church people are looking for a van that is either converted or they can convert on the cheap. He says that he has the money in his registered retirement plan and all he needs to do is to take it out, but he also said the same thing when my friend from church was over about the tv set and the dvd plus the rest of the credit card bill for the stay in the motel, so I do not exactly believe him. And the trouble is that when he gets the van since he cannot drive, there is a need for drivers. He wants to gtocery shopping with me and have someone drive the van and I do not exactly want him to come along. I do not want to go through the "we don't need this, we don't need that," anymore. For medical appointments and socials, all right.

That is what I think. If he can take the money out of the retirement fund that he put the stocks into and if we can get the disability discounts and get everything back in our income tax, then it would be all right. The trouble is also he thought that when we got the house fixed up, he could just phone the credit union and have it transferred over, but it did not work that way. I also have been going to the credit union site and see if there is a way to transfer the money from the investment to the savings account like we could have done in the other bank, but no it is not there.

OMG, i don't blame you, you do not need him along while you buy groceries , it will only stress you out because he tries to tell you what to do..If he keeps spending that money that he has then if he does die you will be broke ..I think you should keep that money safe for times when you are in need.....

We can get to the church when it is nice. I was thinking of when there is snow on the ground and there are ruts in the road. Our street does not get cleaned that often and of course handitransit is unreliable. If there are no vans available for power chair users, you cannot go. So we were thinking of when it becomes quite snowy and the road is hard to travel.

Unless you find one made for more that is usually all they do hold. We have one that is made for two. It is made so that the wheelchair could be the driver, or a passenger. It is a minivan.

We have found one and our friend is going out tomorrow to see if it is mechanically all right. It does have a lot of miles on it, and it seemed the former owner traveled a lot in it. If we buy it, considering my husband's condition, we can use it for at least a couple of years. The trouble is that it only has room for one wheelchair as it is a mini-van.

I would think that is the way to go. My husband wants us to foot the whole cost, but I am sure some of the members of the church have a different idea. I also do not want to have our health suffer, by buying cheap and less nutritious food because we have to have the money not only to pay the credit card bill, but for the dishwasher, microwave, and refrigerator we plan to get after the credit card bill is paid.

I think they are willing to do it, but my husband wants to buy it himself. We can get a cheap used van for next to nothing, but it can only accept one power wheelchair, and our friend at church looked for a van that can hold two or more people, but according to him it looked like junk. The trouble is that my husband has the money in his registered retirement fund, but it is hard to get at. And the other trouble is that until the van is available to get to the credit union, he either has to wheel down there, or make a phone call and they would rather have him come down in person.

The trouble is my husband wants to pay for it himself. He has already transferred the money from his registered retirement fund to the equity fund, but the whole trouble is that just pays what went out of the equity fund. So we will have zero funds in that. Then he will transfer the zero funds into the savings account. He thinks that there is no problem.