Luxury cars removed from the motability scheme

[AutumnLeavesandKnittedJumpers]

https://news.sky.com/story/luxury-cars-removed-from-motability-scheme-ahead-of-budget-13475029

too little too late. As a full time worker I can’t afford to run a car, let alone a luxury car. Motability should be a standard car - available in automatic and manual, an option for wheelchair users, and that’s it.

Child benefit is £26.05 per week for the first child and £17.25 per week for subsequent children, and is removed from anybody earning a moderately high salary (by pitiful UK standards, at least).

Is your assertion that parents are retiring from work because they have child benefit income of £26.05 per week?

Exactly. Just like anybody else who wants a more expensive car, they pay for it.

Are people really this stupid that they cannot grasp this?!

What you’ve described is an entirely different issue. This thread is whether disabled people should be able to put the money towards it themselves to have a better car.

What possible assessments can the doctor have been carrying out? There are no assessments necessary for Motability.

The only thing the doctor could have been doing is assessments for PIP or DLA Which I am pretty sure does not not qualify him as a Motability expert in any way, shape or form!

A quick look at any leasing site (as posted in a few screenshots already on the thread) will show that anyone can lease a 'premium' car for similar numbers to those quoted by Motability, especially if you factor in the VAT saving.

Sure, one person going into a dealership is never going to get as good a deal as a company buying 250,000 cars a year - but using a leasing company, who are often given deals by manufacturers to shift cars, will get you as good as or even a better deal much of the time.

But the craziest thing of all about all this fuss is that it will save absolutely no money. The PIP will be paid anyway. It just further stigmatises a section of society that is this weeks target of the 'divide and conquer' authoritarian government and click-bait driven press. Mumsnet love these threads I am sure ;)

That is interesting now you point it out. Are we all being manipulated…

Fair point. Maybe the rules should be that those who need adaptations can choose luxury cars. Those who can’t can buy them. Or that Motability just applies to those who need adapted cars. Or Motability just pays for adaptations to any car provided by the disabled person.

Luxury cars for all claimants doesn’t need to be sacrosanct to allow for this though.

It was in the past I think. He said he worked for the DWP and they sent people for medical exams when they really weren’t sure if they met the criteria.

Yes you're absolutely right. Disabled people don't deserve nice things. In fact, why not just make them all stay in the house and eat nothing but porridge and plain water for the rest of their lives?

They would get the SAME subsidy as any other car, with a huge payment they had to contribute themselves. Do your research before chatting shit.

I thought the mobility scheme was an independent charity and not directly funded by the government. DWP don’t run the scheme. The ‘government’ were never handing out luxury cars, the charity decided to offer them because they didn’t want to discriminate.

I made a follow up post - we should stop providing the Yaris on Motability if it costs only £3k more for a BMW, because someone somewhere isn’t getting value for money.

An absolutely disgusting set of posts regarding disability.

I have been disabled for twenty years whilst paying 45% tax. 18 months ago I fell seriously ill. I will not recover. I had to resign my job and I'm now having to sell my home. Can I have some of the £1m+ in tax back I've paid? No, I can have higher rate mobility at £77 a week and my days of Mercedes driving are over.
Our family life has changed beyond anything I would have imagined and I'd willing give up my PIP for my old job back even at 75 hours a week.
I once saw a chap in a very snazzy low slung sports car in a disabled space. I was fuming until I saw his prosthetic leg and arm. An ex solider. Should he give up something that makes him happy? He gave his service and got blown up for for it.
People without disabilities have no idea. I would happily give everything I own not to suffer constant pain. Its so bad I'd rather not wake up some days.
Had the Chancellor put 2p on income tax that's only £20 in every thousand. Surely that's a small price to pay for hospitals and schools?
Fiddling with disability benefits is disgusting and not where the waste is. I have enough medics in my family to know we spend billions on NHS managers who pee off the staff more than they help them. I also think MPs allowances are ridiculous. They need to buy their own clothes and wallpaper!

I shall never forget the poster who quoted the Nazi concentration camp gate wording in a previous disabled bashing thread. Horrific and shameful.

Have any of the naysayers actually looked at the cars Motability offer and the prices of them?

I've just checked the cheapest Merc/BMW type I could find is a medium/large WAV with a minimum down payment (again, for those who are hard of thinking, this is paid by the end user) of £56,000. If someone can afford to pay £56,000 up front for a car, why the fuck shouldn't they be allowed a luxury model?

Sadly I think some posters would even begrudge disabled people being given a wheelbarrow to get around in. The ‘it’s not fair’ culture is really getting out of hand.

Exactly. He worked for the DWP carrying out PIP or DLA assessments. His opinion on Motability carries no more weight than the posters on this thread, because Motability has never required its own assessment

@Julen7
There is no criteria by the CHARITY Motability beyond the person who leases that car having higher rate PIP or DLA plus downpayment.
Thats it.

if you are thinking of Blue Badges - again completely separate.

if you mean the actual benefits themselves that’s a wholly separate issue.

Pretty sure all my children had progressed past, "it's not fair!!!!" stage by age 5.

Ah I see. So you object to the VAT exemption that exists on all disability equipment and aids which enable disabled people to participate in society (and therefore, in many cases, work and pay tax instead of claiming universal credit to cover their living costs)?

So presumably, to be consistent, you wish to also apply VAT to walking sticks, wheelchairs, mobility scooters etc? Or, is it just that you are “jealous” of people so disabled they cannot walk more than a few metres having access to a leasing scheme which enables them to choose to use money that is theirs regardless to lease a car, avoiding many of them being housebound? The scheme is lower cost primarily because of economies of scale. This enables the scheme to cover the costs of vehicle adaptions and to make the scheme accessible to those who would not have a sufficient credit rating to lease privately despite being able to afford to do so.

Do you really think this policy which is fiscally neutral (actually in fact seems to raise tax revenue given it increases car manufacturing, increases workforce participating and therefore revenues, and lowers welfare and housing costs) is the main problem the UK is facing?

The green monster seems to have permeated beyond the eyes of some posters and caused some brain rot.

I would love if Motability sued the sources of the misinformation that they receive “grants” and “subsidies” from the government.
I would love if they sued the sources of the claims that they are supposed to have government intervention into the lawful running of their charity as to which vehicles they should or shouldn’t own to lease under approved lawful operations.

The charity offers them because (a) there is demand and (b) manufacturers are willing to supply at a price that makes it work. Restricting the list of manufacturers saves no money on the benefits bill, and gives less choice to the disabled.

The only ways to reduce the number of Motability cars is to tighten up the qualifying criteria for higher rate PIP (which will save money), or increase the cost by removing the VAT exemption for the disabled (which will generate VAT income for HMRC).

Can you read?

”Luxury cars for all claimants”?!

I am continually amazed at the inability of many here to understand basic financial transactions.

Just for those who keep reminding us that pip is an in-work benefit...
Between 1/5 - 1/6th of PIP claimants work and that may even only be part time.
4/5th do not work, so 80% do not work so clearly the provision of cars etc isnt helping enough that people are then able to work

I am sick of the jealousy towards disabled people. And it is jealousy. Which is completely ridiculous if you consider the reality of being disabled and all that comes with it.

I am on the highest rates of PIP indefinitely / ongoing. I have multiple complex autoimmune issues. I am on 25 medications a day including an immunosuppressant which is effectively akin to permanent chemo. I was always in high paying jobs until about 15 years ago when I became more and more unwell. I am now 45 and will not be able to work again. My life has been destroyed by my disabilities.

One of the most frightening things is that my income is now out of my hands. I am at the mercy of the government and the judgement of others.

I have a motability car - a Kia Sportage. I paid an advance payment for it. Why shouldn’t I have a nice car? Should I drive around in a crap obviously disability type car to make others - who have more choices than me - feel better? It’s not too far off making Jewish people wear a gold star. It is prejudiced and disabilist, and I am sick of the hate being directed towards people like me.

Your posts are remarkable for their rudeness.

Bloody hell. These benefits are not means-tested people. If the money wasn’t spent on a car, it could just as easily be spent on Krug, caviar, hookers or Cuban cigars, except that nobody would know.

Either we have non-means tested benefits, or we don’t. If we do (and I think we absolutely should) then it’s precisely nobody’s business other than the recipient’s. This measure is an irresponsible move by Labour that further demonises claimants by implying they’ve been somehow taking the piss. In fact, all they have done is lease a car in accordance with the rules and their own budgets.

Fwiw our household income for 2025 was about £400k and I also get £300 a month in DLA for my disabled DS. Next month, I’m spaffing the DLA (including my £10 Christmas bonus - don’t be jealous now! 🙄) on a spa day at a luxury hotel. Because I am fucking drained from trying to raise a SEND child in a deteriorating shithole of a country where everyone seems to have discovered bigotry and ableism overnight.

Equally, DH and I have paid hundreds of thousands in tax and saved the NHS and LA tens of thousands by paying for assessments, aids and educational support for DS, so I won’t be feeling remotely guilty during my taxpayer-funded massage and facial, and neither should those using their PIP for a “luxury” car under this scheme.

The point is that if you can afford to lease a car you don’t need a handout from tax payers to kease a car….what is so difficult to understand about that?