The number of people pulled from the new car scheme for rules breaches has risen from seven to 15 a day, figures show
The company providing cars to disabled people has removed the vehicles from more than 11,000 benefits claimants for abusing the scheme, The i Paper can reveal.
There is concern that the Motability Scheme – which leases new cars, including EVs, in exchange for disability benefits money – is increasingly being exploited by friends and family members of claimants.
Other forms of misuse include lending or sub-leasing the cars, or using them for business reasons such as running a taxi or for food deliveries.
However, disability rights groups defended the “life-changing” scheme and warned against demonising hundreds of thousands of people who need Motability cars and use them legitimately.
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.
The graph showing how many people use Motability
The customers subject to one or more claim of misuse related to their vehicle rose from 12,000 in 2022 to more than 17,000 last year, according to figures provided by Motability Operations.
Some 2,488 people had their cars removed for misuse in 2022 – increasing to 3,626 cases in 2023.
Last year saw a further spike in cases, with 5,300 claimants having their vehicles taken away.
It means cases of abuse have risen from seven a day to 15 a day over the past three years.
But Motability Operations said the rise reflected the growth in eligible customers. The number of benefits claimants using the scheme stands at 815,000 – up from 650,000 in 2022.
A spokesman for Motability Operations said misuse of the scheme was “unacceptable” and complaints were “thoroughly” investigated by the company in partnership with police.
“As the scheme has grown, so have the number of reported cases [of misuse]. That’s to be expected, and we’re responding with even greater focus.
“We’re strengthening our approach to tackling abuse, including working closely with national policing bodies to investigate allegations of fraud or malpractice.”
People claiming personal independence payments (PIP) are eligible for a Motability car – but only if they get the highest, “enhanced” rate of this disability benefit.
It requires 12 points, the highest amount on the PIP scoring system used to assess someone’s struggle to get around.
Motability Operations’ own expansion from 650,000 to 815,000 customers since the end of 2022 reflects the rise in PIP claimants from 2.8 million to 3.7 million during the same period.
People claiming the higher rate mobility part of Disability Living Allowance can also use the Motability scheme.
The company now accounts for one in five of all new cars bought in the UK – around 390,000 of the 1.9 million sold last year.
Claimants labelled ‘freeloaders’
The Conservatives’ Shadow Work and Pension Secretary Helen Whately has said the scheme’s growth showed it had gotten “way out of hand”.
And Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice has claimed the Motability system had been “hijacked” by “freeloaders” trying to get a “free car”.
Motability vehicles are not free, however. Disabled people hand over most or all of their £300 mobility benefit each month in order to lease the car, depending on its price.
There is also criticism that luxury models such as Mercedes Benz and BMWs worth over £50,000 are available under the scheme. But up-front payments are also required – ranging from £499 for the cheapest cars to £8,000 for the most expensive.
Some recent reports have claimed social media influencers are boasting about getting a Motability car, suggesting they were “encouraging” others to claim PIP to access one.
Noah Bear Nyle, a benefits expert who gives advice on TikTok and YouTube, said it was “understandable” that some disabled people on these platforms were “celebrating” getting new Motability cars if they are entitled to them.
He claimed there was also some obvious “rage-baiting” on social media, where some apparently able-bodied young people are only pretending to get access to a Motability car to “get a rise out of people” and boost views on their videos.
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 is frustrated that he sees people online “describing PIP claimants as scroungers” after a recent 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.”
Reality of the scheme
Dr Mark Carew, a professor at the International Centre for Evidence in Disability at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said it was “very disappointing to see negativity about a scheme that is critically important”.
The expert – also a director at the Disability Policy Centre – said the idea that a growing amount of taxpayers’ money was being spent on the scheme was misguided.
“It provides choice and independence. It also delivers good value for the taxpayer because it doesn’t cost them anything over and above what goes on PIP.”
Dr Carew also said there was a high bar to getting the 12 points needed for the enhanced mobility payment, pointing to official Government figures showing fraud in the PIP system is zero.
However, Labour peer John Mann said there were legitimate concerns about the scale of misuse of Motability cars by friends of family members.
“It needs tighter criteria,” he told The i Paper. “I understand that in some situations it’s vital for a relative or friend to be able to help disabled people.
“But I worry it’s not tight enough and I worry whether the checks [on whether drivers are always properly using the cars] are robust enough.”
Lord Mann also believes Mobility Operations is “making too much money” and called on the Government to examine how the whole scheme operates as part of its plans to tighten up PIP criteria.
The company’s latest annual report shows that it is sitting on reserves of around £4bn. It also made £6.9bn in annual revenue, with around £2.8bn coming from customers’ benefit money and upfront payments, and the rest coming from the resale of vehicles.
Mobility Operations has said the large reserves are needed to protect the scheme’s “long-term sustainability” in a fluctuating market which has seen major changes in car prices.
A spokesperson also said the reserves helped “reduce our need to borrow to fund vehicles on the scheme, helping to lower costs for customers today”.
Earlier this week, its chief executive Andrew Miller told the Financial Times that the company would review the number of drivers allowed to use each vehicle, as well as increasing the use of tracking devices for possible misuse.
Mobility Operations can fit vehicles with a tracking device in some circumstances, such as when none of the claimant’s appointed assistance drivers live at their home.
“We have to start looking at tracking more to try and counter some of the very valid challenges we’re getting on people using the scheme in not the way it’s intended,” said Miller.
The Government has been approached for comment.