Some of you have written in querying the Motability scheme. This allows people on disability benefit to acquire a new car on a lease from the Motability charity. For people on the highest level of PIP mobility payment there are 48 cars to choose from where the Pip payments will cover all the lease costs. The charity is free of VAT on buying the new cars and those on the higher payments can qualify for Vehicle Excise exemption.
The original idea was for government to allow tax breaks to cover costs where a physically disabled person needed expensive modifications to a standard car for a wheel chair and or different controls. The Motability charity also now qualifies for the tax exemptions to lease a standard car to a benefit recipient.
Motability now accounts for 20% of all new car purchases in the UK. People can lease dearer cars on the scheme by putting in additional money. The car has to be returned if the individual loses benefit entitlement.
What changes are critics wanting to see? Should the scheme be limited to vehicles needing modification? Should all Motability cars be bought VAT free? Should they be for the disabled person to drive and not for others in the family?
July 1, 2025
Reading between the lines, it sounds as if this is an opportunity for many without disabilities to acquire a new car on the cheap if they know how to work the system.
Having noticed the huge numbers of mobility scooters, I looked on the internet for more information. I do not need either a scooter or a motability vehicle.
However, shortly after I received a brochure for scooters through the post, though I did not submit any details online. When I asked why I had been sent the brochure answer came there none.
July 1, 2025
Off topic but very topical, yesterday when the temperature failed to break any barriers we were breathlessly informed that June was the hottest on record for England. Note only England. Apparently according to the weather man it didn’t even rate in the top ten for Scotland and Ireland. He failed to mention that the reading for England was from the end of he runways at Heathrow, I kid you not.
July 1, 2025
Agreed Ian. Did you notice the BBC did lead on “Hottest ever first day at Wimbledon” failing to mention that a start day of 30 June is much later than the traditional start. End June is generally hotter than mid June…
July 1, 2025
If you read Chris Morrison on The Daily Sceptic, you will find that a great many of the MET’s monitoring sites are located in areas where they will be subject to sudden increases in temperature due to external factors such as jet engines.
There are also a great many fabricated monitoring sites and others which have “junk” status.
https://dailysceptic.org/?s=met
July 1, 2025
Donna
Daily Sceptics have shown that many sites where temperatures are taken, don’t actually exist!
Did you know there’s a Climate Sceptic off shoot?
July 1, 2025
Thanks for the info
July 1, 2025
Ian
No surprise as this sort of reading location and many others is highlighted in Climate Change the movie.
Like most government figures it is selective reporting, and selective calculation, meanwhile in North Wales it was reported as a balmy 22 degrees yesterday by my Daughter. But then it’s not England so would not count.
July 1, 2025
Doubtless it was a bit cooler when it was a grass strip a a few sheds and without many Jumbos every few minutes!
July 1, 2025
Indeed the advertisers seems to know everything about everyone.
My wife and I have owned about 24 cars over the past 45 years but never once have I bought a new one. Typical purchase price was about £3k most expensive a volvo V70 when I needed the 7 seats and child booster seats which cost £13k. Had they all been new it would prob. have cost me over £500k more in depreciation, finance costs and extra insurance.
July 1, 2025
Less expensive on repairs and maint. too in my experience.
July 1, 2025
Plus less CO2 as no new car and car battery to be mined and manufactured. But doubtless Miliband and Kahn will ban them or tax off the roads soon.
July 1, 2025
Spot On ….they should be encouraging us to keep older cars
July 1, 2025
I have bought used and new. I don’t do big mileage with free local transport, crowded roads & parking issues.
The Japanese cars, to me, were worth buying new. I have the current Toyota since 2005. I notice quite ordinary cars have rocketed in price. My neighbour is thinking of ditching the car when he gets his Freedom pass.
Same happened with other items. Jermyn Street shirts have tripled in price since I last bought them. Northampton shoes – even in the sale – are expensive. I am not looking to buy either, on the basis that what I have will see me out.
July 1, 2025
You have to buy them from charity shops or second hand unless you are rich. Abbot’s I think one good one is called for quality as new shoes !
Three Lucy Letby hospital bosses arrested over ‘manslaughter’
Staff investigated in connection with ‘increased fatalities’ in years neonatal nurse carried out baby murders. Three hospital bosses have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the case of Lucy Letby.
Says the Telegraph.
“It is important to note that this does not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder.” say the authorities.
Indeed not. As it is very clear all 15 of her absurd life convictions are totally unsafe and why on earth is she even being denied any appeal? Other than to protect the reputations of our absurdly deficient legal system and NHS perhaps?
July 1, 2025
Online searches are likely to have cookies your access allowed, so product interest gets flagged and Hey! Presto!
July 1, 2025
Motability must be one of the most abused scams ever. We all know someone who has one and wonder how they qualified. Recently there was a report on a woman using her vehicle for courier parcel delivery and another ferrying his decorating equipment about.
Now we have the latest wheeze of mental illness and ADHD, these quality for PIP and thus a free vehicle. An acquaintance of mine has a fully electric Renault costing about £45k and he’s classed as morbidly obese. My taxes shouldn’t be used to subsidise bad lifestyle choices.
It is reported that the scheme has a surplus of over £1 million. How does that work when it’s taxpayers money and a chief executive on circac£300,000.
Some serious savings to be made here.
July 1, 2025
Ian
Agree entirely, a big report/investigation appeared in the National Press Last year about the super profitability of the “Mobility Charity,” it always helps boost resale profits if you purchase a car at a discount and tax free in the first place.
No one wants to demonise disabled people, but this is just an abuse of taxpayers money on a very grand scale, by a lot of people.
I think you will find the CEO is also alleged to be on a huge bonus, as well as a very large salary and expenses.
July 1, 2025
Perhaps motability cars should all be labelled as such one colour and a very basic, small cheap car costing circa £6k tops without the VAT. And only for the very few who really need them.
July 1, 2025
Browny Orange perhaps!
July 2, 2025
How about the colour Gold for hitting the jackpot !
July 1, 2025
There was a disruptive passenger on my last flight out of the country. He had earned two warnings from the crew before the half-way point. Earning his third, from the purser, he wheeled-out the ADHD excuse!
July 1, 2025
I agree Ian, motability shouldn’t reward bad behaviour like excess obesity. Obese children should be helped much sooner, often it is their parents setting them up for a lifetime of problems. Remember the program Honey We’re Killing the Kids the BBC needs to start making it again. I know a couple of those children, gastrict bands fitted because they can’t control their diet. Schools need to run cookery demonstrations to feed the children at the school dinner sitting. Use some of the children as assistants, and those watching rotate them for each section. Learning how to batch cook, low cost but healthy food is essential.
I read a report last week that said ADHD is linked to the food the person consumes. We will be relying on the work RFK Jnr is doing in the States to shine a light on unhealthy addictive food.
July 1, 2025
Or maybe check Which?
July 2, 2025
Did Which warn against the killer CV19 Jabs? If not why would you think they could or would name brands in the food industry?
July 4, 2025
Did Which report against the cow feed additive in Milk?
Experts say people don’t need to avoid emulsifiers yet bowel doctors will tell you otherwise.
You can actually set fire to one brand of crisps, so high in oils.
July 5, 2025
Funny that you appear to trust RFK Jr, originally an attorney, on unhealthy addictive food more than an organisation that has been defending consumers since 1957 and has had consumer safety issues at the top of its brief, whether contraceptives, toy paints, electric blankets, food, drugs and additives, seat belts, banking procedures, …
Do you prefer the findings of Brandwatch (Cision-owned, and with direct links to the providers) as being more honest?
July 1, 2025
Heard via family contact – those with learning difficulties who ‘work’ supervised in the community are able to buy a car, using funds from their *care fund* but have no driving licence. So, a relative uses the car.
July 1, 2025
“Motability must be one of the most abused scams ever.” well we have net zero, HS2, the net harm Covid Vaccines the Millennium Dome, the Covid Enquiry, much of our legal system… rather stiff competition.
July 1, 2025
I know little about the scheme. I do know that it supplies a significant number of cars to the ‘used’ market. Dealers love them!
I recently changed my car, buying from a local dealership, a two and a half year old vehicle with 2300 miles on the speedometer. Turns out it was a former ‘Motability car’
July 1, 2025
Less than a thousand miles a year. Taxis would be cheaper. Doing the taxman out of VAT should be reason enough to cancel the scheme.
July 1, 2025
I don’t want to support or otherwise the Motability scheme, but how many taxis can embark a wheelchair?
After an operation some years ago, I had to use a walker for a while and when I came out the hospital the taxi I had ordered did not want to accept me with it even if I could get it on the back seat without any problem.
Moreover from the Motability site (motability.co.uk) I understand that people can get a car, scooter or powered wheelchair in exchange to part or total of their allowance that is then directly paid to Motability. So, to me at least, this is not a free scheme contrary to the impression given by this blog.
July 1, 2025
The Chinese are developing driverless affordable cars. I can see a time in the future where there will be pooled mobility cars that you have to book a slot to use with wheelchair access.
It is free to the user the taxpayer either pays mobility to use taxis and public transport or provides a car. I know a legitimate user with a wheelchair and a couple of chancers who got lucky.
July 2, 2025
How many mobility cars can embark a wheelchair? How many mobility scooters can embark a wheelchair?
Mobility scooters are very dangerous. Surely we can look after our old and frail better than that?
Interesting that you came to the U.K. for your operation – NHS?
July 2, 2025
Any van can embark a wheel chair from Peugeot Rifter (small Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle) to Vauxhall Movano (large WAV). See the motability website, you might learn a few things.
July 2, 2025
The specialist London type cab can if its a fold up type.
A normal car is usually used as a taxi, so the answer is the same number as an ordinary car that would be purchased within the motorbility scheme. !
Unless you are suggesting that only cars (van type situation) that can carry a wheelchair should be provided.
July 1, 2025
Is it a “right” to have transport? A “right” that must be funded by others?
Many able-bodied people are deprived of having a car, because they can’t afford one. Their taxes will help disabled people to get a free one. That seems unfair. No-one says the able-bodied have a right to a car.
We want to be kind to everyone, but there is the practicality of cost. It seems like this well-meaning scheme has grown inexorably, as such things do under the influence of lobbyists. No politician wants to be portrayed as bashing the disabled, either.
If nothing else, I would hope that the availability of public transport would limit the availability of this freebie. Someone in rural England likely has more need of a car than someone in London, for example (able or disabled).
July 1, 2025
I am often on London tubes, TRAINS and buses often having flown in with bags. I am not disabled but it must often be rather a struggle for someone who is. Not cheap either or very convenient or clean or that safe either.
July 1, 2025
Or reliable!
July 1, 2025
As I said yesterday, I have a friend whose husband has genuine mobility issues as a consequence of age / ill health and the consequences of an industrial injury a few years ago which his former employer refused to acknowledge. He has difficulty walking any distance, but can drive. They owned two cars; they were not specially adapted and he could drive both of them.
18 months ago they got a Motability car which is not specially adapted. He doesn’t need a specially adapted vehicle. On getting the “free” car, they sold one of their own and pocketed the money. They continue to use the other car they own.
I do not think “free” Motability cars should be given to anyone who does not need a specially adapted car because of the severity of their physical disability. No-one with a disability (ie anxiety, depression, ADHD and a myriad of other “conditions” which is not a physical disability should be given a “free” car or any kind of mobility payment whatsoever.
July 1, 2025
Motability cars are not free. To get one you need the higher rate PIP Mobility elementwhich you surrender in exchange for the car. If you don’t have the car you keep the cash to pay for taxis etc.
July 2, 2025
So – free.
My father was 100% disabled. He would have been shocked had I suggested claiming anything. We accepted his condition and tailored life as necessary.
July 2, 2025
Lynn
Same with my Mother who would not even claim the Careers allowance, too proud, some would say too stupid, its a generational thing, because they were bought up outside and before the welfare state, when families were responsible for looking after their own.
Her Welfare officer was astounded, and said but it’s your right, but she still refused.
July 1, 2025
I have known two women with MS. The older carried on working as a solicitor almost until she was entirely wheelchair bound, barely able to manipulate its joystick and unable to feed herself (her mind remained alert). The family had a second hand van with windows with a lift at the back to load the wheelchair with her in it.
The other was not quite so severely afflicted while I knew her, but needed a mobility scooter which she folded down and winched into the back of her Nissan Motability car. She also had an assistance dog (we met through dog walking). She also managed to keep on working. It was reasonable to provide the winch and minor adaptation to driver controls. The car enabled her to work, and could be regarded as job related as she had to visit clients. She had a strong positive personality, accepting her condition yet determined to make the most of her life and her family.
Perhaps a contrast to those who feel entitled, but aren’t really. They remind us of Margaret Thatcher’s famous “there’s no such thing as society” quote which ends
“People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There’s no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation.”
July 1, 2025
If the vehicle doesn’t need modification, then can’t the travel requirement be satisfied with a mate who has a car? Why does everything have to revolve around independence? If you depend on others to give you a lift, how about making sure you’re popular? Are we no longer a society where people help each other?
Mind you, if your conversation is all about whinging about benefits, maybe you might find yourself short on friends.
July 2, 2025
I am astonished that mentally ill people are given cars to drive. They should not be allowed to drive anything. Knowing that many drivers have a mental condition such as ADHD and are encouraged by the Government to drive means the only vehicle one can have and be safe in is an army surplus tank.
July 2, 2025
PG
Love it !
July 1, 2025
What changes are critics wanting to see? Should the scheme be limited to vehicles needing modification? Should all Motability cars be bought VAT free? Should they be for the disabled person to drive and not for others in the family?
I bet there’s people on this site who knows someone who’s getting a vehicle by swinging the lead, here’s a idea when I was younger the only disability car had only three wheels and was blue in colour so let them drive them I can bet my bottom dollar a lot of the so called disabled would be walking or taking the bus
July 1, 2025
Mick, the simple solution is just to pay for modification to the users own vehicle if that is necessary, no more than one modification every three years should be good enough surely, that is if the scheme continues in a modified form.
The fact that 20% of new cars are purchased under this scheme just shows the level of abuse, and the staggering cost of the present system.
July 1, 2025
@Berkshire Alan – that would certainly fit the brief on equalising disability, which after all is the only aim.
July 1, 2025
I’ve known several families who have a Motability car from DWP, and their local council pays for taxis to ferry their children to and from school. Why is the taxpayer paying for both of these services? In one case, the unemployed father went in the taxi with the child, which required a return journey twice a day while his Motability car sat idle on the drive. It saved him petrol by using the taxi service.
July 1, 2025
In many cases, the Motability car is obtained by a so-called carer for use by the disabled person.
The scheme covers: insurance (with up to 3 additional drivers), MOT & servicing, vehicle tax, plus home chargepoint standard installation. It’s great if you have kids who want to learn to drive, avoiding the massive insurance costs the rest of us have to pay.
This has morphed from a well-intentioned scheme to replace the blue three-wheelers and provide a lifeline to disabled people who need an expensive car adaptation, into a taxpayer-subsidised freebie for people with very tenuous links to providing transport for their disabled person. As with the whole benefit system, it has totally got out of hand and needs reforming, but no politician will have the guts to make changes. The scheme has provided a lucrative business for those who run it and sits on a large amount of capital, which should be returned to the public purse.
July 1, 2025
As with all disability benefits Motability has a place but needs to be limited to those with a physical disability which impair mobility (it’s in the name geddit). It certainly should not be open to anyone on benefits who does not have a disability.
I have no problem with Motability cars being VAT free (if they are correctly targeted) but as VAT is a “luxury tax” perhaps those taking anything but a basic car (up to £25K) should incur VAT.
Motability is a good idea, abused because it can be.
July 1, 2025
Isn’t this just another scheme that should be put into the charity sector, rather than paid for from general taxation?
If the charities find themselves short of funds to meet demand, obviously they need to invest more of their efforts into fund raising, directed particularly to the wealthy (like quango CEOs) with all their surplus money.
July 1, 2025
Motability is not paid for by taxation.
Tax gives PIP to people who need it. Whether to keep the cash or get a motability car costs the same to the state
July 2, 2025
Where does the money for motability come from then if not from taxation?
PIP is paid from taxation.
Every last Penny the Government ‘spends’ come from what they have taken. They earn and have nothing.
July 2, 2025
What they have taken or will take (borrowings are future tax)
July 1, 2025
The definition of who should qualify for the Motability scheme needs a certain amount of clarification. It is basically a good idea to ensure that those with certain medical conditions can get out and about and be part of life again.
The scheme though doesn’t cover all of those people that are mostly home-bound, who have very little choice but to stay in their homes most of the time.
For the sake of fairness the criteria for eligibility should evaluate how easy it is for people to get out, not just what ailments they have.
They should not be driven by other family members, and indeed if there are able bodied people in the family who have cars, then that should count against provision.
Motability cars should be bought VAT free.
July 1, 2025
Work practices have changed, not many people have a disability that stops them from working earning or even ‘working from home’. You can ‘work from home live’ in pretty seaside town and still receive ‘London weighting’ and who pays?
As figures have recently shown 55% of those working receive Taxpayer funded hand-outs over and above the about they contribute. They also show another 35% have no employment but are supported by the Taxpayer. They are all net receivers, not contributors.
If everyone contributed on and equitable basis a lot of these discussions and situations would disappear.
My ‘hobby horse’ the State, the Government, pays nothing it is the Taxpayer that pays all – it could be deemed fraudulent for the State/Government to suggest otherwise.
July 1, 2025
I have had an above knee artificial leg for 60 years.
I have never considered myself disabled. I buy models of standard automatic cars that do not need to be modified. I once considered applying for a mobility car. However the question ‘ can you walk 50 meters ‘ disqualified me, I play golf for 2 hours most days.
July 1, 2025
@Wil – there are many inspiring people such as yourself. I wondered of those that aren’t able, in very harsh terms, able to get a grip, are in that position because those around them have brainwashed them into thinking that they always need to be helped.
Then we see the likes of Billy Monger, and find him like yourself inspiring.
Wish you all the best
July 2, 2025
👏🏻 You will have lived life to the full and not allowed your impediment to disable you. Congratualtions.
My aunt had polio aged 3. Retained the use of only one arm. She wore callipers under trousers (always) and beautiful blouses to distract the eye. She worked every day, knitted beautifully (she taught me and I knit in the same fashion with one arm stationary) and lived a full and happy life.
Who wants to be a cripple and a victim when you don’t need to be?
July 2, 2025
+1
July 1, 2025
I don’t think the non-payment of VAT is an issue is it ? As all the money involved in this scheme is Government money it doesn’t matter much how it is circulated. It’s like public sector employees paying income tax, it’s an irrelevance, whatever they pay just bounces straight back to them the next year, it provides no benefit at all to the government.
July 2, 2025
Roy the Government has no money, it all comes from the taxpayer.
July 2, 2025
+1
July 1, 2025
If as much as an astonishing 20% of new car sales are covered by the scheme it must be a racket. People are gaming the system. Just as it is believed the ballooning benefits bill is caused by people gaming the system. Politicians need to get a grip. That is a big ask, I know. Almost certainly too big for most of them.
July 1, 2025
For someone who is physically disabled and in receipt of PIP payments and the other benefits to which they are entitled, a Motability vehicle is a lifeline, particularly if they live in a rural area. The car will be used to go shopping, for medical appointments, to visit friends etc.
The current controversy relates to those claiming benefits for easy-to-fake mental health issues such as “depression” or “anxiety”. Such people do not need a Motability vehicle. They need help and encouragement to get back into work, backed up by the treat of being sanctioned
For me, the issue is whether the claimant has the right to live in the UK, whether they have paid sufficient NI contributions and whether they are physically able to work.
Like many folk I am surprised that Labour have decided to soak the disabled to pay for the boat people to live in a nice hotel on benefits, with free NHS care and free schooling for their children thrown in. I would suggest that Starmer looks again at the Rwanda option. Or putting them up in tent cities on Scottish islands or disused RAF airfields. Come the winter they will want to leave and find somewhere warmer to live
July 2, 2025
Labour is also soaking the disabled to pay for your own hobby horse, Mr Gold. Net zero.
While immigration is a big problem, our adherence to the doctrine of carbon will hit us all even harder.
Stop them both and then make it more difficult for anyone to claim any type of benefit to encourage work.
July 3, 2025
Gold, Your opening line is true for the great majority of people who live in rural areas.
Should THEY be subsidised, often very poor bus travel has been stopped creating great difficulties.
July 1, 2025
We all know of people who are severely physically disabled and deserve their own transport. To restrict the attractiveness of the scheme to “carers”, the vehicle should only be used with the disabled person in it as a driver or passenger (a bit like the Blue Badge scheme). The range of vehicles should be restricted and easily identifiable as within the Motability scheme.
We also all know people who have slight physical problems but manage to get around by themselves. There must be a severe system of assessment which precludes the. I also assume that the mentally incapacitated should not get a free car.
There will always be those on the margins who scream for the benefits but tough love will save the public purse.
July 1, 2025
Sir John
As with all these things robbing one sector to pay another is a slippery slope to hell.
Expensive EV’s are the funding of one sector by a sector that is barely making ends meet, like wise solar panels, heat pumps. No one to have to earn to move forward.
Because Government with the support of our legislators keeps stealing from the Taxpayer to fund things beyond their brief, and beyond the nations means we are moving back to the dark ages.
Is giving someone a hand-up the same as forcing dependence and in WOKE parlance ‘entitlement’. Yes, that it is the Socialism, that ‘all’ recent incumbents of No 10 have forced through without thinking of the consequence. It has been about the next election, the next bribe with the taxpayer’s own money and personal ego. What none of them have been is ‘bright’, able to recognise things have to get paid for. Tax is not earnings; borrowing is not earning. Earnings come from a vibrant economy that thrives on the World stage, real tax growth is as a result of the economy growing – nothing else. Remove money from the economy, tax, and the economy shrinks. That is basic maths. All that is needed is for a balanced budget, one where expenditure is controlled, with expenditure limited to the Nations actual earnings, not political terrorism and ideology.
We know Governments can’t run businesses in a professional and profitable manner, but they are also demonstrating they can’t even run themselves. They are so wound up in the gratification of self-esteem they can’t see the woods from the trees.
July 1, 2025
Today, Starmer is being pressured from with in his ranks to give people more of the hard-earned Taxpayer money, without consideration to its real purpose or how the country can earn it to pay for it.
Although if they just cancelled all the other waste of taxpayer money, the extra ill-thought out recruitment and the expansion of the State they have committed to in the last 12 months they would have the money.
The Welfare Bill has become who else can we bribe. A horse before the cart, it should have been how can the country earn more
July 1, 2025
They should only be available to people that have severe physical disabilities, who actually have difficulty in walking any distance, not for people that suffer anxieties, fibromyalgia and mental health problems, although I would consider that totally blind people that have someone who can drive living in the same house. Yes ok for other family members to drive the vehicle to transport the disabled person or doing errands etc for them. Motobility vehicles should be limited to basic models and not high end luxury models and of a manufacturer that benefits UK industry.
July 1, 2025
Taxes foregone mean the scheme costs the Exchequer towards c.£1.5 billion per year (above the PIP disbursements), meaning if it were scrapped entirely similar amounts could be squandered on HS2 or paying Mauritius.
Whatever might be done about eligibility (numbers surged by around a third post Covid, attributed to mental health issues qualifying more PIP recipients), why not require that all scheme vehicles are UK-built?
July 1, 2025
There were 35,000 of the old three-wheelers which disabled people used to drive. I would guess there are about 1,000,000 Motability cars on the scheme now.
Having been involved in the retail motor trade from the start of the Motability scheme, I can confirm there are many genuine claimants who deserve every help.
But I can also confirm that other family members use many Motability cars, and the disabled person may get taken to the shops once a week. It comes back to the weakness of Governments and GPs being too ready to accept claims. My guess is that at least half of the fleet is mainly used by people with no disabilities, but a family member who has qualified for the PIP payments.
July 1, 2025
A lot of disabled people can’t drive. They need a car which is driven by their carers.
July 2, 2025
The car can remain stationery when the disable person is not in it.
July 3, 2025
Why a car and not a taxi?
July 1, 2025
The real question is why the last government, and this government is so scared to do anything about the ‘motability’ scam …..its like net-zero, the governments are too scared of the media backlash and want to save face
July 2, 2025
How is it a scam?
People get or don’t get the higher rate mobility element of PIP.
IF they get it they can spend it any way they like. On booze chocolated and prostitutes if they want.
Motability is simply agroup buying scheme which offers good value to disabled people.
Reply It is not just a leasing scheme. It enjoys full registered
charity status with tax advantages. It pays no VAT on buying new cars which is a big loss to the Treasury and a large subsidy.
July 1, 2025
There is a good lesson to be learned from this. Every good and generous endeavour is hijacked and corrupted and used against those who initiated the good and generous idea.
We have to stop being ‘good and generous’ and protect the shaky platform on which we all now stand.
July 1, 2025
Ah a bit like the ECHRs
July 2, 2025
The road to hell is paved with good intent!
July 1, 2025
The most disabled member of my extended family moaned to me about how two neighbours, less disabled than her, had made fraudulent use of the scheme.
In Australia, the National Disability Insurance Scheme is now growing like Topsy. A tenth of all white boys, for example, are autistic, so qualify for payments. Of course, the parents were allowed to shop around for a diagnosis.
The right approach for both schemes. Place strict cash-limits on them, and reduce the budget by 10% each year.
July 1, 2025
It is only a matter of time before this government slaps VAT on all this.
July 1, 2025
The Motability scheme requires joiners to be in receipt of the mobility element of PIP at the higher rate per week of £77.05. A taxi journey one way of c. 10 miles might cost c.£30 so the scheme seems to work miracles in delivering very much more for the money.
I would expect there to be a good case for restricting the PIP and hence the scheme to those with disabilities that materially impact their mobility. Motability could still offer others its product, but without all the tax breaks it or its users enjoy at present (VAT on purchase and on lease payments, VED reduction or exemption, insurance premium tax, Low Emission Zone charges (in Scotland), etc.).
July 1, 2025
“Tony Diver – Associate Political Editor. Ben Butcher – Data Editor 01 July 2025 6:32am BST
Benefit claimants with conditions including acne and writer’s cramp have been handed additional disability payments from the Government, official figures show.” Telegraph
Do you think this is true, John?
July 1, 2025
It seems that the main beneficiaries of the Motability scheme are the manufacturers of EVs who struggle to get unsubsidised sales. Indeed, the lack of proper government oversight has probably been promoted by the desire to use less obvious schemes to promote EV uptake. The heavy subsidy for company cars is the other main route.
Do EV manufacturers qualify as disabled?
July 1, 2025
Today at 02:00 pm we have 2TK struggling to get the cost of welfare, the welfare state, under control. It would appear it is because the Socialist in Parliament think that other people’s money ‘must’ be given away regardless whether there is a means to fund it, or the country to earn and create money/tax to fund things.
The Conservatives are said to be going to vote down the bill with their Socialist brotherhood, giving money away is still there thing. The continuity team show they still have not learnt their collective responsibility lesson. The Parliamentary group the pseudo conservatives still don’t get it when they voted in the type of Socialist dogma thinking that got them kicked out.
Any one or party able to demonstrate they will to ‘work with’ and ‘not fight against’ the people of this country will win every time. To that end they first have to be recognise that earnings growth is the only thing that produces the wealth their dreams need. Removing money that is not there from a country that has 25 years of tax and spend, austerity is not creating a tomorrow.
To many people in Parliament with short memories, the Nation has yet to recover and pay for Gordon Brown’s self-induced financial crisis – and they want to throw more money away!
Reply The Conservatives are proposing larger reductions in the benefit budget.
July 1, 2025
reply to reply…. how do they communicate that?
July 1, 2025
585 criminals were smuggled, into the UK on the 29th and 879 on the 30th from the safe country of France………………I wonder how many claim a disability, PIP and motability
July 2, 2025
Nearly 20,000 people arrived in the UK in the first half of this year by crossing the English Channel in small boats – up 48% on the first six months of 2024.
July 2, 2025
MT – With 3877 of those arriving just in the last 15 days in 61 boats : 17/6 to 01/7 inclusive. (Official figures.)
Headline today 02/7: Migrants could be barred from claiming asylum under the one in / one out deal with France, details of which are not finalised yet but which we should no doubt be wary of.
Suggested was an option for return would be to use the Tories 2022 Nationality & Borders Act……..
On the legal arrivals side, the two major resettlement schemes which brought Afghan refugees here ( More than 30.000 legal ) are to be closed. The charities are already on to it though claiming it closes a “lifeline” for the thousands more who could seek to flee from the Taliban.
July 2, 2025
Why are these unidentified criminals, young men of fighting age, rewarded with free accomodation in 4 star hotel rooms, or now houses which they will own through squatters rights, £40/week pocket money, free healthcare, free entertainment, free bus passes and the freedom to roam our streets, even outside schools, and take black market jobs undercutting our indigenous workers? Why aren’t they just given tents, food and simple cleaning facilities in a secure, fenced compound. At least until they identify themselves.
July 1, 2025
If motability was restricted to a basic car (like a 1980s metro) with 1 litre engine, painted in florescent yellow, limited to 40mph (for safety) there would be an immediate reduction in claims
July 3, 2025
Shouldn’t it have a sign ‘ Used by the Disabled’?
July 1, 2025
Motability Scheme – ”All your drivers must hold a UK or EU driving licence”
https://www.motability.co.uk/get-support/during-your-lease/cars-wavs/named-drivers/
Why is ‘EU driving licence’ even quoted …its a UK benefit
July 1, 2025
What a scam. Poor bloody taxpayers forking out again for no good reason. Too many undeserving healthy people gaming the system. I personally know of more than one person who has a motability car that is never used by or for him but used by 2 other fully healthy family members to go to work
July 2, 2025
….and they’re all big 4×4’s that the average disabled/elderly person couldn’t get in to, without difficulty
July 2, 2025
It is hard to believe that 20% of new car sales are to genuinely disabled drivers. Has this figure been verified by anyone credible? According to the SMMT 1.95 million new cars were registered in UK in 2024. So 400,000 went to disabled people. Assuming these cars last five years and level sales that means there at least 2 million disabled drivers on the roads. I don’t believe it. Does anyone in the British state have a clue what is going on or is it just another legalised scam?
July 2, 2025
PS 3.7million received PIP in England and Wales in April 2025. So probably around half have a car subsidised by the taxpayer. So around half of disabled people are either not driving at all or are driving an ordinary, unmodified, car.
This is amazing. The House of Commons Research Briefing Paper, ‘UK disability statistics: Prevalence and life experiences’ dated 2 October, 2024, shows the highest proportions of the population receiving disability allowances are:
Blaenau Gwent – 19.0% of the population
Neath Port Talbot – 18.7%
Merthyr Tydfil – 18.4%
Inverclyde- 18.1%
Knowsley – 17.8%
West Dunbartonshire – 17.7%
Caerphilly – 17.5%
Hartlepool – 17.4%
North Ayrshire – 17.3%
Blackpool – 17%
Are these really genuinely disabled? I don’t believe it.
July 3, 2025
Merthyr Tydfil…..isn’t that the place with the highest 3 generations of adults who have never worked, or are long-term unemployed.?
July 3, 2025
All this blithely assumes the absolute crucial need for a car 24/7. There may well be excellent reasons why a disabled person may have this absolute need, one which many of us do not feel – but nobody has explained when exactly this ‘felt need’ translated into a socialist decision to provide everything for one group at the cost of the others who cannot themselves afford to buy and run a car.
Also, where did the superstition arise of ascribing all ‘disability’ to misfortune – which it very often is, but very often these days most decidedly is not. And who decided that physical or mental misfortune should be financially compensated by an increasingly small number of earners, many of whom can barely afford basic living costs of housing, food and subsistence that they pay others to receive?
It is a sign of just how statist and socialist we have become that even Sir John R. does not raise this question. Are we to have no limits placed on taxation?
July 3, 2025
A breath of fresh air. You state what many will think is harsh or even cruel, yet the reality has to be faced up to.