a person with severe arthritis of both shoulders and hands may not be the best candidate for a scooter, but because they can walk a few steps in their own home, such persons are not seen as approved candidates for a power wheelchair either. Various disability rights groups are campaigning for Medicare to change this policy. For those who do qualify for Medicare, they can reimburse up to 80% of the Medicare allowable value of the scooter. Such restrictions are also applied in at least some Canadian provinces. For example, to be eligible for partial funding by the Ontario Assistive Devices Program, the user must need the scooter for use in their own home. Scooters are too big to be used inside the average home. Similar restrictions on NHS powerchair provision exist in the UK; manual wheelchairs are only prescribed for users who cannot walk any distance at all. They are not available to people who can shuffle or walk a little way- even if that ability is limited to just a few painful steps. This means leaves people who become disabled with no way go to out of the house; no way to buy food; no way to live. Patients must go through an extended disability assessment process of around 8 months to find out if they are judged to be deserving of a powerchair or scooter through Personal Independence Payment. This route is also not available to people over 65. It is claimed that some users who might be better served by a powerchair are privately procuring a mobility scooter as a cheaper substitute. However mobility scooters do not fit inside a house and so cannot be a substitute there. Outside of the house most powerchairs do not do well over uneven ground. They can however operate in smooth-paved cities. Legal issues In the UK, mobility scooters are available with government subsidy under the Motability scheme; but only to under 65s judged as having 'high mobility needs' during the PIP (Personal Independence Payment) assessment. For legal purposes they are classified by the Use of Invalid Carriages on Highways Regulations 1988 as either Class II or Class III Invalid Carriages. A Class II scooter must be limited to for use on a footway only, while a Class III scooter must be limited to for road/highway use and have an additional limiter for footway use. To be road safe in