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A website called Motability Check has surfaced – letting users plug in number plates to see if a car’s funded “by the taxpayer”
See here :-
https://www.motabilitycheck.com/
Work and Pensions Minister Baroness Sherlock claimed she was “shocked” by the site’s existence, while crossbench peer Baroness Grey-Thompson described it as “terrifying” and “despicable,” declaring it “crosses a line to incitement”.
I believe this to be potentially a hateful action towards disabled members, being disabled is a protected characteristic under UK law, and maybe a NCHI should be launched.
Or am I overreacting?
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My son has a private plate on his Motability car and when you do the check it gives exactly the same result as mine in that his car might be a Motability one.
Which means, having a private plate makes no difference.
My son has a private plate on his Motability car and when you do the check it gives exactly the same result as mine in that his car might be a Motability one. Which means, having a private plate makes no difference.
Damn! Just goes to show how inconsistent it is though.
My son has a private plate on his Motability car and when you do the check it gives exactly the same result as mine in that his car might be a Motability one. Which means, having a private plate makes no difference.
Its more about the format rather than whether its private or not, the site does a check and if it meets a certain format the lookup is performed, if not it displays the error message. So for example A1 ABC would error but AB01 ABC would pass
My son has a private plate on his Motability car and when you do the check it gives exactly the same result as mine in that his car might be a Motability one. Which means, having a private plate makes no difference.
Its more about the format rather than whether its private or not, the site does a check and if it meets a certain format the lookup is performed, if not it displays the error message. So for example A1 ABC would error but AB01 ABC would pass
Ah right. I wouldn’t really count the latter as a proper private plate – more that you’ve chosen the reg of a normal plate (at a cost). Mine are more like the former, so hopefully OK?
@kezo almost figured out how to get this info when he mentioned HPI, but made the error of assuming tax class was involved. I think Motability may be incorrect, by mentioning DVLA. When checking if a vehicle is in a finance agreement, it shows the name of the finance company, i.e. Motability. Although the check isn’t free, you can pay extra for unlimited checks. All the website owner has to do is get some data on site visits, then get adverts on the site generating income.
If its starts generating income from Google Ads, take a screen shot of the advert and boycot the advertisers, they won’t last long.
st an update on this
Motability have released a short statement on this. https://news.motability.co.uk/scheme-news/scheme-vehicle-checker-website/
“We’ve seen a website that claims to show whether a vehicle is leased by a disabled person through the Motability Scheme. We’ve tested it and found that the information it gives is not accurate.
The website is run by a third party using government data from the DVLA. It does not have access to any Motability Scheme data. Your information remains secure.
We understand this may be worrying. We’re working with the relevant organisations to address it. “Joss
Current car: Peugeot 308 GT Premium 1.2 Pure tech Petrol.
Coming soon...BMW X2 sDrive 20i M Sport 5dr Step Auto In November 2025Just checked my private plate, and it doesnt come up, neither did my original plate.
My private plate had the wrong sequence apparently, so that is how there was no positive..
Its from 1979. 3 letters, 3 numbers and they year letter at the end.
Out of curiosity I checked a car in the disabled car park in town today that had a private plate, it came back as 99% Motability – Tax paid in full by Motability. The plate was in the normal format though so that’s probably why it worked.
If I seem a little strange, that's because I am.
Skoda Karoq SEL.
Out of curiosity I checked a car in the disabled car park in town today that had a private plate, it came back as 99% Motability – Tax paid in full by Motability. The plate was in the normal format though so that’s probably why it worked.
Out of interest, when you say it was in the normal format, do you mean that it was a current style reg (two letters, followed by two numbers and then three letters)? If so, I doubt that any database would recognise those as private plates. in the true sense of the word, as they are really just normal current style plates that people have paid a premium to get their initials etc.
The old style suffix and prefix plates are now at least 24 years old, so when you see them on modern cars they are obviously proper private plates, as the style of reg is out of sync with the age of the car. I wonder, has anyone with a personalised plate of the suffix or prefix style currently on a Motability car run a check and found that it flags as likely to be Motability?
I have a private plate in the format of a single letter, a single number and three letters. The site tels me to input a registration number in the correct format.
The first letter of my reg is L (1993) so about 30 years old.
I have a private plate in the format of a single letter, a single number and three letters. The site tels me to input a registration number in the correct format. The first letter of my reg is L (1993) so about 30 years old.
Thanks. That’s good. The two private plates that I own (both currently on retention) are that format. If we stick with Motability I will use one of them on the car.
The site is nothing to do with checking for a motability car. It is using a trade check on VED status. If the car is registered for disabled tax it will show up as motability. The private reg thing is something to do with the way some transfers are done, sometimes the private number doesn’t show up on car checking sites, ie ones for checking mot status etc, seems no rhyme or reason why some don’t show up but not to do with the type of number. The only way to avoid this site showing your car as motability is to ask motability if you can pay the VED yourself, but for many people this will cost £600 per year.
Yes @Glos-Guy it was in the current format, they had a 15 plate on a 2 month old car as it maybe had their initials or something.
The site seems to be dependant on the format of the number to work, anything other than 2 letters – 2 numbers- 3 letters appears to throw it.
I found it interesting that it stated “tax paid in full by Motability” rather than “disability exempt”, it suggests a deeper infiltration of the data than just registered as disability vehicle.
If I seem a little strange, that's because I am.
Skoda Karoq SEL.
@kezo I’ve a few months left on my 5yr extension, I checked and it says…..
Possibly a motability car..
Yes @Glos-Guy it was in the current format, they had a 15 plate on a 2 month old car as it maybe had their initials or something. The site seems to be dependant on the format of the number to work, anything other than 2 letters – 2 numbers- 3 letters appears to throw it. I found it interesting that it stated “tax paid in full by Motability” rather than “disability exempt”, it suggests a deeper infiltration of the data than just registered as disability vehicle.
My plate, is typical DVLA plate, which happen to have my initials, as the last 3 letters (kindly chosen out for me by MB rep)
The results take about 60s to populate and comes up likely a Motability car however, there is nothing suggesting who pays the tax however, I bypassed Cloudflare verify on first use of the site last week and still blocking two JavaScript packages coming through the node manager, that aren’t the use and forget type, but doubt that would make much difference to the final result.
@kezo I’ve a few months left on my 5yr extension, I checked and it says….. Possibly a motability car..
Thanks ajn – the site looks to be giving different results if the vehicle is outside the standard lease.
Yes @Glos-Guy it was in the current format, they had a 15 plate on a 2 month old car as it maybe had their initials or something. The site seems to be dependant on the format of the number to work, anything other than 2 letters – 2 numbers- 3 letters appears to throw it. I found it interesting that it stated “tax paid in full by Motability” rather than “disability exempt”, it suggests a deeper infiltration of the data than just registered as disability vehicle.
Thanks. As my private plates are the older style (less digits) I’m hopefully OK of if I assign one of them to a Motability car.
As for the “tax paid in full by Motability” comment, that is all the evidence that we need to expose the fact that this site is designed to be incendiary and cause hatred against Motability customers, in spite of its faux claims to the contrary. Standard DVLA checks would not use such wording.
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