Is it time to put the brakes on the Motability scheme?

Peter Stanford's mother benefited from the tax-break scheme in the 1980s and it changed her life – but, he asks, can we really afford it when there isn't enough money to go around?

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My mum had a series of Motability cars over the years when I was growing up in Liverpool in the 1980s and 1990s.

All were bottom-of-the-range Ford Escorts, all were blue, and all were driven by my dad so she could get out and about as a mother, homemaker and wheelchair-user with multiple sclerosis. For us, a car was a necessity, not a luxury. Back then, almost all public transport was inaccessible. Once, I remember being stranded with her in the city centre, waiting in a taxi queue and having driver after driver refuse to take us on the demonstrably false basis that her chair wouldn't fit into the cab.

Motability felt like a blessing. First introduced in 1977, it has, over the years, done the same for four million people who receive certain higher-level disability benefits and can use some of the money to lease a car through this government-backed scheme.

Yet of late, it has become the subject of controversy and political debate, with suggestions being tabled by think tanks that its funding could be better spent on other projects. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has claimed that Motability is being exploited by people who aren't really disabled and pledged to "restrict Motability vehicles to people with serious disabilities", telling the party's conference this month: "Those cars are not for people with ADHD."

Meanwhile, the National Audit Office has accused it of being badly and wastefully run, its executives overpaid (its chief executive was paid £658,000 last year while the company made a £565m loss in 2024), and the government of exerting too little oversight when taxpayers' money is being spent on it. No surprise, then, that we hear Rachel Reeves is now examining reforms to the scheme, which could help her save billions and boost public confidence in the welfare system.