My take on the governments response to the petition;
“The Government and Motability have worked in partnership to develop reforms” – The government now seems to be passing some of the blame on to Motability.
“fairness to the taxpayer, saving over £1 billion by financial year 2030/31” – Or, put another way, adding £1 billion of costs to Motability customers.
“These reforms will not affect eligibility for the Motability Scheme or disability benefits”. – True, but the forthcoming Timms review most likely will.
“These changes will only apply to customers taking out new leases with Motability and will not apply to current leases” – This line, which is also being used by Motability in response to every challenge of the changes, is seriously irritating me. It implies that only new customers are affected. EVERY Motability customer will be renewing a lease over the next few years and then ALL of these adverse changes will apply to them. This continually repeated line is disingenuous.
“Motability has also confirmed it will continue to offer a broad range of vehicles available without an Advance Payment, ensuring that people can access vehicles suited to their needs, whether that’s a larger vehicle or extra boot space to carry wheelchairs, using only their disability benefit.” – The biggest lie of all. I’d be very interested to know which genuinely large vehicles (as opposed to what Motability term ‘large’) remain on the scheme, especially if you exclude EVs which are only suitable for those who can charge at home. Many disabled people need cars with higher seating positions (SUVs) with automatic transmission and large boots for wheelchairs. As we know, the ‘choice’ of these vehicles is dreadful and I’m not aware of any that fit the bill that are zero AP.
“Motability recognises that some customers may need to drive more miles for a variety of reasons. They will be introducing an exceptions process for very limited situations” – Given that governments of all colours rightly say that disabled people should be encouraged to remain in work whenever possible, will commuting count as one of the “very limited situations”? I suspect not, but it should be.
