Consultation outcome

Motability response

Updated 22 February 2021

Motability is a national charity which aims to enhance the lives of disabled people with their personal mobility. Our vision is that no disabled person should be disadvantaged due to poor access to transportation. We help people to enjoy the freedom and independence to work, to learn, to get to appointments and to see family and friends. We provide a range of grants to help people with a range of disabilities and we oversee the Motability Scheme (‘the Scheme’), through which some disabled people can use enhanced mobility benefits to lease a car, scooter or powered wheelchair. The Scheme is operated for us on a contract basis by Motability Operations Ltd.

At a time of growth and of new opportunities for the charity, we warmly welcome SSAC’s work on how public funds can be used to support the mobility needs of disabled people. We know that for those whose needs it meets, the Scheme has a positive impact and offers good value for money. But we also know that there are other disabled people whose mobility needs are not met by the scheme, and for whom other solutions need to be developed.

The Motability Scheme: impact on the lives of disabled people

The Scheme has over 620,000 customers. 94 per cent of car scheme customers have a physical impairment or another long term health condition.^{[footnote 1]} 23 per cent of car scheme customers live with a mental health condition or psychological difficulties; this figure is increasing over time and is also higher among new customers receiving PIP.^{[footnote 2]}

We know from customers that the scheme reduces the stress and worry of struggling to get around and improves quality of life. For example, 85 per cent of car scheme customers say that access to a car has improved their access to medical services and 77 per cent say that their health has actually improved as a result of having a car.^{[footnote 3]} Similarly around education, 29 per cent of car scheme customers aged under 24 said that having a car had helped them to pursue their education. And while 17 per cent of disabled people report that transport difficulties are a barrier to labour market participation,^{[footnote 4]} 39 per cent of those not retired, permanently unable to work or in full time education said that their Motability car had enabled them to get a job, progress in the labour market, or stay in work.^{[footnote 5]}

There are wider social and community benefits too, and benefits for the families of disabled people. These videos give a sense of the difference that the Scheme can make to disabled people and their families.

xxxx is xx and lives with his xxxx (now his carer) and young xxx in a ground floor flat. He fell from a balcony, resulting in paraplegia and serious brain injury. He didn’t consider the Scheme for a while as xx was severely depressed, but xx now refers to it as a lifesaver. As a family they can now manage the school run, hospital appointments and food shopping rather than relying on parents, and xxxx is even able to take short trips alone with his son.

The Motability Scheme: value for money

Lease costs were, on average, 44 per cent cheaper in May 2018 for Motability customers than in the wider leasing market. Around two fifths of this difference arises from the direct impact of the tax concessions from which the Scheme benefits. Three fifths is generated from factors such as effective commercial management of the Scheme, strong partnerships with maintenance and repair suppliers, and through economies of scale.

Note also that this 44 per cent figure is a comparison against commercial contract hire rates which are not normally available to individuals. The retail equivalent is a Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) which will be more expensive and will also require a full credit check. So for a weekly spend of £61.20 (weekly enhanced mobility component of PIP) the customer is obtaining a value of around £110 per week.

The Motability Scheme: Affordability of adaptations to leased vehicles

We offer a wide range of adaptations to leased vehicles – there are currently over 500 different products, from left foot accelerators to wheelchair swivel seats, and customers have a broad choice of manufacturer. 200 of these products are offered at nil cost to the customers.

Beyond this, as a charity we also offer grants to customers who need more expensive adaptations such as wheelchair swivel seats or electronic controls, either when they first lease a vehicle or part way through the lease. This is explained below.

The Motability Scheme: eligible non-customers

The Committee is especially interested in why two thirds of those in receipt of enhanced mobility benefits do not use the Scheme.

Our research suggests that almost half 48 per cent of eligible non-customers are unaware of the scheme, and a further 9 per cent are unaware of its services.^{[footnote 6]} Awareness is especially low among PIP recipients, and we are working with DWP to reinstate direct communications about the Scheme to successful PIP applicants. Our research suggests that the most common route for customers to find out about the Scheme is through a friend or relative. ^{[footnote 7]}

As fig 1 shows, the most common reasons cited among eligible non-customers who are aware of the scheme are that people prefer to own their own car; that they are not interested in what the scheme offers, or that they do not drive. Do note the small sample sizes here, however.

Fig 1: Why eligible non-customers who are aware of the Motability Scheme do not use it (Motability Operations Omnibus research, 2018)

Reason	DLA recipients	PIP recipients
Prefer to us my own car	35%	37%
Not interested in what the scheme offers	20%	16%
Don’t drive	12%	12%
No plans to have a car	11%	12%
Don’t need it / fitness not an issue currently	7%	1%
Don’t qualify	6%	5%
Cheaper to run own car	6%	2%
Need to use allowance for other things	4%	3%

(n=51/33, 146/70)

It is likely that some of these preferences are driven by restrictions in scheme design but that others may be based on misunderstandings of how the scheme works. For those aware of the scheme, car dealerships are an important source of information to help potential customers understand how it works.

Existing customers are, however, very positive about the scheme and its impact. For example, 99 per cent of customers say that the scheme provides worry-free motoring.^{[footnote 8]}

Grants to support the mobility of disabled people

In 2018-19 Motability (the charity) provided over 10,000 grants worth £33.7 million to help disabled people and their families with the financial costs of transportation. This was a 48% increase on 2017-18.

The types of grants available and the volumes of grants made under each programme are set out in our most recent annual report. The majority of these grants are currently related to the Scheme (for example, helping people to get the vehicle which meets their specific disability related requirements).

In 2019-20 we expect to increase these volumes significantly again and to broaden the range of our grants offer, reaching more disabled people who are not Scheme customers. This is also explained in detail in our annual report.

1. Motability Operations car scheme customer satisfaction index research, Autumn 2019 ↩

2. as above ↩

3. Oxford Economics, The Economic and Social Impact of the Motability Car Scheme in 2015-16. NB: some of this analysis is based on older research from 2010. ↩

4. Department for Work and Pensions, Office for Disability Issues, Fulfilling Potential: Building a deeper understanding of disability in the UK today (2013). ↩

5. Oxford Economics, The Economic and Social Impact of the Motability Car Scheme in 2015-16. ↩

6. Oxford Economics, The Economic and Social Impact of the Motability Car Scheme in 2015-16 ↩

7. Motability Operations Customer Healthcare Professional survey, 2019. ↩

8. Motability Operations Customer Satisfaction Index research, 2019. ↩