Before Rachel Reeves raises taxes in her Autumn Budget, she is reportedly considering cutting access to the popular Motability scheme to save £1bn a year.
The scheme helps to provide around 860,000 disabled Britons with vehicles, including scooters, wheelchairs and cars, through the welfare system.
The Chancellor is also said to be considering removing brands such as BMWs, Audis and Mercedes from the scheme amid claims that benefits claimants are receiving luxury cars.
Disabled car users have pointed out that the cost to the taxpayer is identical, whether the car is a Fiat or a BMW, and the customer covers any further costs to drive a more expensive brand.
James Taylor of the charity Scope has warned that cutting access to the scheme “could heap extra costs onto disabled people all over Britain. Restricting eligibility to Motability could hit disabled people on lower incomes hard.”
How Motability works – and who can access it
Only about five per cent of the total cars on the scheme are cars made by luxury brands such as BMW, Audi and Mercedes.
Rather than the customer being given the vehicle in perpetuity, the scheme works on a lease agreement.
Disabled people who meet the DWP’s criteria hand over most or all of their £300 mobility benefit each month to lease the car, depending on its price. Motability will sell it once it is no longer being used to get the money back.
Emma Vogelmann, co-chief executive of the disability group Transport for All, said: “As disabled people, we often find public transport is unusable – broken pavements, non-existent bus routes, and packed stations we can’t navigate.
“A Motability car changes that – it allows us to work, shop, and do the school run. Scaling back the scheme would lock disabled people away from daily life. Does the Chancellor want to take away our freedom?”
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Disability benefits are often accessed through the Disability Living Allowance, or personal independence payments (PIP), which are designed to help a disabled person remain in work or further study.
At the Conservative Party conference earlier this month, Kemi Badenoch pledged to “restrict Motability vehicles to people with serious disabilities” and said: “Those cars are not for people with ADHD.”
However, Motability is not assessed by condition, but by requirement.
“PIP is assessed on what you can do rather than what you have,” Tom Waters of the Institute of Fiscal Studies told the BBC this week. “So it is not clear how Badenoch could stick to her promise and prevent people with specific problems from accessing Motobility.”
Access to the Motability scheme requires the “enhanced mobility” element of PIP or another disability support payment. This means scoring 12 points across two criteria: being able to plan and follow journeys, and how well you can move around, aided or unaided.
Are ‘millions of people’ getting cars for ADHD?
On Thursday, the BBC’s fact-checking programme, More or Less, analysed claims that “millions” of people were claiming cars through disability.
Tom Waters, of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, found that around 860,000 people have a vehicle through Motability, which includes wheelchairs and scooters as well as cars.
Of Britons of working age claiming disability benefits, around 600,000 claim for ADHD and anxiety disorders. Of those, about a third, or 190,000, receive the enhanced mobility element, but not everyone will claim a car.
On PIP, around 88,000 people claim it for ADHD, with about half or 43,000, getting the enhanced mobility payment, but again, not everyone will be getting a car.
Of this number, 21,000 are aged 16 to 19, and only about 7,000 are aged over 30.
DWP data on Motability scheme users focuses on a primary condition and not secondary conditions that may make it difficult to get around, such as a physical ailment or a chronic condition, such as arthritis.
Why is Reeves targeting the scheme?
The Chancellor is considering spending cuts and tax rises to plug a £40bn black hole in the UK’s finances.
Motability has attracted criticism in the past over claims it is open to abuse. In March, Motability Operations said it had been forced to strip 11,414 people of cars since 2022 after its investigators found the claimants had broken the rules.
Two appointed friends or family members are allowed to use the cars so long as they are helping the disabled benefits claimant.
But the company said it was now reviewing the number of people it allows to drive each vehicle, amid fears that friends or family members are taking advantage of the system.
Nicholas Fearn, 28, uses a Motability car after qualifying for the enhanced mobility rate of PIP. He has autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety disorder, and also has arthritis in both knees.
Fearn has previously told The i Paper of his frustration that he sees people online “describing PIP claimants as scroungers” after a flurry of stories about Motability vehicles.
“If someone is genuinely abusing the scheme, it’s right action is taken against them,” said Fearn, a freelance journalist. “But getting a Motability car isn’t easy. It requires a lot of medical evidence and a rigorous assessment, which is very stressful.”
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