Premium car brands will no longer be available via Motability – a programme that helps disabled people in the UK lease vehicles using their government benefits.
Car makers such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz are being “removed immediately”, Motability Operations confirmed on Monday evening (24 November).
The part-taxpayer-funded scheme is being revised to focus on cars that “meet disabled peoples’ needs and represent value and purpose”. Such cars, which are individually adapted, include the Renault Clio, Dacia Jogger and Citroën ë-C3.
The news comes just weeks after chancellor Rachel Reeves vowed to axe luxury cars from the programme, in an effort to save £1 billion a year, according to reports.
This cost-saving also includes removing VAT exemptions – something that Motability users have warned will result in “severe” consequences for them.
Motability Operations buys cars and leases them to people with a qualifying disability allowance of £75.75 per week.
The package includes road tax, servicing, insurance, breakdown cover and tyre and windscreen repair. Some cars also need adapting to support individual users' needs.
Motability has become a major player in the UK car market since its 1977 foundation and now the charity has a fleet of more than 800,000 cars.
As it removes premium car brands from its stable, Motability Operations will look to buy more British-made vehicles – and has promised that half of its fleet will be so by 2035.
These will include cars from Nissan, Mini and Toyota and van-based Vauxhall MPVs. The Sunderland-built Nissan Juke, for example, is currently one of the most popular vehicles on the scheme.
This, said Motability Operations CEO Andrew Miller, will “do even more to support the economy, and our ambitious commitment should put British car manufacturing into top gear”.
Reeves said that “backing British car manufacturing will support thousands of well-paid, skilled jobs”.
Join the debate
Add your comment
As a disabled driver who has been on the scheme for years allow me add my thoughts while the daily mail brigade rub themselves in rage butter. I never did understand why they included "luxury" brands in the scheme, and a simple thing to me was always why not make it means tested, then those that can clearly afford a car just buy one. Those of us who can't well isn't that why it was set up? Years of abuse have led us down the road of people tarring everyone with the same brush. Uneducated (and in some cases those that are just genuinely thick) start waving flags and pointing at the flaws in the sysytem rather than putting forward ways to fix it. So why do I NEED a mobility car? Well first off I use a wheelchair, I opted and bought (myself!) an electric one. But I live alone, I have no taxi or bus services near me that are wheelchair accessable and I live a mile away from the nearest shop so a car is more or less a lifeline for me. I drive a Nissan Juke. It has been fitted with a hoist that allows me to get the chair into the back (at the cost of 2 seats) but then I can drive myself to the shops and to appointments. Should that be taken away from me because some rich person is ripping the system? If I want a "better" Juke I need to pay a premium so its not just the "luxury" cars that cost "extra" oh, maybe you did not know that bit, to get a luxury car you have (had) to pay a premium on top of your pip in some cases thousands so certainly not free (and you don't get that back) So I have a basic hybrid automatic that gets me about and I am more than happy with it. Would I like a Merc? of course but I cannot afford it even on the scheme so really the only people this is going to affect are those that could afford to pay the extra premium to get the luxury car in the first place.So to those that rant about the scheme give your head a wobble and wake up. Target your rage at the idiots that work the system, not those of us who would not have a great life without it.
I don't think anybody posting here has an issue with you getting a subsidisd car that has been modified to give you the mobility you need and deserve. I'm glad the program works for you.
Big rip off of a charity who buy cars very cheap, probably without paying VAT, and then lease them at a minium £310 a month, a C3 with a 10k miles a year limit costs the same commercially and bear in mind Motobility are meant to be a charity.
Oh don't get me started on how they sell their secondhand cars, an even bigger scandal.
...a C3 with a 10k miles a year limit costs the same commercially
I don't know the mobility scheme, but it's my understanding the payment also covers insurance, servicing and maintenance etc. Did you factor that in when comparing prices?
Yep, 3 year warranty minimum on pretty much all cars so no cost there. First year road tax fee is free, year 2 and 3 wouldn't come to much, 2 services and maybe an insurance saving of £250 a year on average, and bear in mind group insurance probably less for Motorbility.
So yes there are small other charges to consider but when you are paying nearly 12k, minimum, for 3 years use of a C3 and have nothing to show for it you should worry what sort of charity this scheme actually is.
Good riddance! Unbelievable that the taxpayer subsidised expensive cars for years. I get it you need help to move around, but can't you move around in a Citroen? I would have said Dacia but ok, it should have 5 NCAP stars.Most working families can't afford a Mercedes but they pay for this.Besides, Mercedes and BMWs are (usually) rear wheel drive, thus having less internal space. How does that help a disabled person?
Got a wife with breast cancer and depression? Have a brand new Ford Puma STLine MHEV.
Two cases I personally know of.