Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced cuts to the Motability car lease scheme in the budget, following a rightwing online campaign that portrayed the programme as providing 'free' luxury vehicles to disabled people. The scheme, which leases around 300,000 cars annually to individuals with mobility problems, is funded by disability benefit payments and users' own contributions.
The campaign gained traction on social media platform X, with accounts such as Max Tempers and the Motability Check website spreading memes and data critical of the scheme. This led to articles in tabloid newspapers and mentions by political figures including Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK's Nigel Farage. Badenoch pledged to restrict Motability vehicles to people with 'serious disabilities', while Reform's Lee Anderson called the scheme an 'absolute scandal'.
In the budget, Reeves ended £300 million a year in tax breaks for the scheme and removed premium brands, stating it 'was set up to protect the most vulnerable, not to subsidise the lease on a Mercedes-Benz'. The changes include imposing insurance premium tax and charging VAT on advance payments for higher-value cars. Treasury insiders insist the decision was based on long-standing concerns about fairness, not the online campaign, though other Whitehall sources acknowledge the pressure from the right.
The cuts were the only significant welfare reduction in the budget, implemented without prior consultation. Originally, the government considered making £1 billion in savings by applying VAT to end-of-lease sales, but this was abandoned after warnings that the entire programme could collapse. The Motability Check website has been taken down since the budget, amid accusations of fuelling hostility against disabled people.
