More than 50 disabled people lose access to Motability vehicle in first five months of Drive Smart scheme

More than 50 disabled people have had to hand back their Motability vehicles since the company introduced a controversial and “discriminatory” new scheme that monitors how safely its customers are driving.

Figures released to Disability News Service last night (Wednesday) show that – between September 2025 and February 2026 – 323 drivers were removed from the Motability scheme* due to penalties imposed for “proven and persistent dangerous driving” under the Drive Smart programme.

In most of those cases, the disabled customer was able to continue their Motability lease through another named driver, often because they already had multiple drivers insured to drive the vehicle.

But in 52 cases, the customers decided they could no longer continue with the lease and had to return their vehicle.

In some of these cases, that will be because the disabled customer was the driver who had been removed from the scheme.

By February, there were 17,146 Motability customers signed up to Drive Smart, suggesting a small but significant proportion of disabled people are losing their vehicles under the new scheme.

The figures are the first released by Motability Operations, the company that runs the scheme, that show its impact on disabled people who rely on their vehicle for independent mobility.

The Drive Smart scheme, which is now compulsory for anyone with a driver under 30 on their new lease and all those new to the Motability scheme, uses a black box or other device fitted inside the vehicle – usually with an associated mobile phone app – to measure how well the vehicle is being driven, how far, and how often.

Each named driver on the lease has their own mobile phone app, which is supposed to record their driving behaviour when in the Motability vehicle.

The scheme rewards those who drive safely – offering up to £160 a year in vouchers – but those who repeatedly receive “red scores” for speeding, harsh braking or other demonstrations of unsafe driving, risk being removed from the scheme.

When the system reports a “red week” for dangerous driving, the driver receives a warning.

A second consecutive red week, or four red weeks over a 12-month period, will see that driver removed from the scheme.

Many Motability customers fear the flawed scheme could lead to them losing their vehicle unfairly, and so losing their independent mobility, while many have criticised the loss of privacy, the inaccuracy of the technology, and the lack of choice over signing up to Drive Smart.

Drive Smart has been introduced by Motability in phases across the UK since September 2025 – there was no trial phase, despite reports in other media – and is focused on two customer groups where it says data shows the risk of an accident is higher: drivers under 30 and new customers to the Motability scheme.

Motability says the aim is to support safer driving and reduce accidents, and that it does not want to remove customers from the scheme.

A Motability Operations spokesperson said yesterday: “The Motability scheme operates a shared insurance model, meaning all customers receive the same comprehensive cover as part of their lease, regardless of personal circumstances.

“This ensures the scheme remains accessible, but also means managing costs is essential to keeping it fair and affordable for everyone.

“Drive Smart is one of the ways we are tackling rising insurance costs among higher risk customer groups, including new scheme customers and those with drivers under 30 years old.

“Only these groups will use Drive Smart and most customers will not need to use the app.

“Between October and February, 323 drivers from across the UK enrolled in Drive Smart were removed from scheme leases for proven and persistent dangerous driving.

“The majority of leases continued with other named drivers.

“Customers who receive a red week are offered feedback and support, including the option to talk it through with us, and only where repeated unsafe driving is clearly attributed to one driver may that person be removed following consecutive red weeks.”

But Phil Swindin, a long-term Motability customer, who uses hand control adaptations to drive his vehicle and has worked for years in technology, said his examination of the scheme shows that “it can easily be demonstrated that the system is not fit for purpose at the moment and is penalising the most vulnerable”.

He said the 52 lease terminations were all “disabled customers who lost their mobility because the named driver they depended on, possibly themselves, was removed”.

He said: “A customer removed by an incorrect system carries that insurance history with them for years, making future cover harder and more expensive to get.

“Any removals automatically flagged by Drive Smart, without human review, and any past automatic removals, should be reconsidered and fully audited before more customers are affected.”

And he said the claim that “customers are offered feedback and support” does not match what customers are describing, as he has seen reports circulating among Motability community groups which describe automated removals and “nothing can be done” responses from Motability.

*Motability Foundation, the charity that oversees the Motability scheme, is a Disability News Service subscriber