The Motability scheme has long been a target of the right.
Helen Whately, shadow work and pensions minister, has come under fire after making remarks at the Conservative Party Conference on October 6, where she claimed:
“Millions are getting benefits for anxiety and ADHD, along with a free Motability car.”
Whately, the Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, has been accused of spreading misinformation and fuelling prejudice against people with mental health conditions and neurodevelopmental disorders. Critics say her statement misrepresents both the eligibility criteria for disability benefits and the number of claimants actually receiving support through the Motability scheme.
The Motability scheme allows individuals who receive the Enhanced Rate of the Mobility Component under the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to lease a vehicle, including cars, scooters, or powered wheelchairs. PIP is a non-means-tested benefit designed to support people with long-term disabilities or health conditions.
Access to the scheme is based on a strict assessment process and is not automatically granted based on a diagnosis of anxiety or ADHD. Many recipients choose not to use their allowance for a vehicle at all.
Contrary to Whately’s claim that ‘millions’ are receiving both benefits and a Motability car due to anxiety or ADHD, the organisation Benefits and Work, which provides information and support to benefit claimants, has highlighted the actual number.
According to Benefits and Work, 128,164 people with mixed anxiety and depressive disorders, 20,272 with anxiety disorders, and 42,596 with ADHD are receiving the enhanced mobility component of PIP. This brings the total to 191,032.
“Even if we took Whately’s “millions” to mean two million, that would still be more than ten times the maximum possible number of people with anxiety and ADHD who could have “a free Motability car,” says Benefits and Work. The organisation questioned whether Whately would apologise for what they called a “massive lie” to “demonise mental health claimants.”
“We suspect we already know the answer to that question,” they said.
The Motability scheme has long been a target of the right. Earlier this year, the Daily Mail devoted a double-page spread to what it labelled “the most outrageous benefits scandal of all.”
Columnist Richard Littlejohn wrote: “The Mobility scheme was never designed to buy 50-grand Mercs for bedwetting boy racers in balaclavas with made-up mental illnesses. Scrap it now!”
While there have been confirmed cases of misuse, with around 11,000 Motability vehicles reclaimed from claimants over misuse issues, this represents a small fraction of the total number of cars leased through the scheme. Nonetheless, isolated abuses have been used by some commentators to promote a narrative of doubt on the legitimacy of mental health conditions and the integrity of those who claim disability support.
The Motability scheme was established in 1978 to offer an affordable and accessible way for disabled individuals to maintain independence and mobility. Over the decades, it has enabled millions of people and their families to lease cars, wheelchair-accessible vehicles, scooters, or powered wheelchairs.
This week, financial journalist and broadcaster Paul Lewis weighed in on the ‘outrage’, posting on X:
“For nearly 50 years, Motability has given back mobility to disabled people. Founded by Lords Goodman and Sterling under the finest disability minister we have had, Alf Morris. It uses the benefit he created to lease cars. I have never known this scheme so under ignorant attack.”
“This is scandalously inaccurate from the minister even for a party conference speech.”
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