[Intranicity]

One issue many disabled people face is getting credit at an affordable price.

With the increasing wait times for cars and lack of choice, I really think the old HP Motability used to offer would be a great option for many.

From memory, the car had to have done less that 30k, be from a Motability approved main dealer and you could get the HP for up to 5 years, it would solve a lot of problems.

No idea why they stopped, or how you/we could push to get it back though

Previous Motability Cars
2006 - 2009 Skoda Superb VR6 2.0tdi
2009 - 2012 Citroen C5 2.0tdi VTR Nav
2012 - 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci tekna
2015 - 2018 Ford Kuga 2.0tdi Titanium X
2018 - 2021 BMW 220d X drive 2 Series Active Luxury
2021 - 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SE
2023 - Hyundai Kona Electric Ultimate

Topic

[Glos Guy]

Yes, I’m sure that it would be very popular. I suspect that they stopped it as they make far more money out of us from new cars. With 20% + buying discounts plus 20% VAT exemption, plus the fact that most Motability customers do very low mileages (= high residual values), plus the fact that sacrificed benefits are now £11,500 over 3 years, plus many people extend for longer (which is highly profit generative), plus the high APs = a business model that is gold plated with knobs on, so they have no incentive to encourage people away from it!

[Mike]

Motability are unlikely to bring back HP and there are many reasons for this.

Firstly, Motability’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) licence is a restricted licence limiting them to leasing vehicles to certain customers only. To offer Hire Purchase (which is regulated by the FCA) they would need to obtain a full banking licence as they are effectively loaning money to the hirer. There are many hoops and hurdles nowadays to obtaining such a licence, and many obligations they would have to carry out. .

One is that affordability checks on the HP hirer (including CRA checks) must be carried out – else Motability could be fined by the FCA for permitting unaffordable loans.

Another problem for Motability is under HP rules, the vehicle can be returned once a percentage of the HP payments are made. The vehicle could at that stage be worth less than the outstanding finance, potentially leaving mb on the hook.

Another issue is if the vehicle is written off during the loan period. Bearing in mind insurance would be the responsibility of the hirer – what if they have failed to pay for/renew the insurance. Motability would be left holding the short end of the stick.

Similarly, if the hirer  simply instructs the DWP to stop paying Motability (as is their right). Do Motability then want to be seen repossessing vehicles from disabled people? If finance is still outstanding at this point again they would no doubt be looking at legal action to reclaim as well (else it is unfair on those who do pay).

Then, what rate of interest would they charge? No matter what it is, customers will say it is too high and Motability are exploiting disabled people!

Is there any wonder mb binned HP a number of years ago and that was before the current FCA regulations came into being.

[Glos Guy]

Very good points Mike and I guess there will be some who default on payments as well. All of those costs and losses would have to be clawed back and the only means that they have to do that is to increase APs for everyone else, which wouldn’t be fair.

[Author]

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