Waves of anger and alarm over ‘punitive’ and ‘discriminatory’ Motability changes

Hundreds of disabled people have expressed anger and alarm over multiple aspects of the “punitive, discriminatory” changes that are being introduced to the Motability scheme.

They responded on social media to coverage in Disability News Service (DNS) of government tax changes that will make the scheme more expensive to customers; Motability’s decision to impose sharp cuts to its annual mileage allowance and significantly increased excess mileage rates; and a new scheme that uses technology to monitor how safely many of its customers drive.

The Drive Smart scheme – which is particularly affecting young disabled people – continues to be the focus of concerns, with repeated warnings for dangerous driving potentially leading to the driver being removed from the scheme and the customer losing their vehicle.

Many are saying that the imposition of Drive Smart without the necessary adjustments – for example, for those who rely on hand controls – is discriminatory, while others say the technology is so inaccurate and unreliable that drivers can be punished unfairly.

One customer said on the DNS Facebook page: “Motability needs to pause Drive Smart, co-design fair policy with disabled people, and give clear disability exemptions – not force us into a punitive, discriminatory system.

“Disabled people deserve dignity, accessibility and fairness, not surveillance and punishment.”

Others fear the data secured through the Drive Smart scheme will be misused, and potentially obtained by the Department for Work and Pensions to try to justify removing disability benefits.

Motability insists that data is “only shared at the end of a trip to calculate a driving score” and that “no additional data is taken from the customer’s phone and data is only used for scoring driving characteristics to assess the likelihood of an accident”.

Many Motability customers are also reporting problems with the Bluetooth technology used by the Drive Smart mobile phone app.

One said of her experience of Drive Smart: “Driving was my escape from disability. Now it’s my biggest anxiety.

“Thanks Drive Smart for ruining my happy time.”

Many of those commenting warned that disabled people would lose their independence through no fault of their own because the Drive Smart system was wrongly reporting bad or unsafe driving.

One customer, Shona-lisa Colleen Horner, said on the DNS Facebook page that she feared the Drive Smart scheme would “push many people out of society, holidays or days out… with families rationing their use of a car that previously enabled inclusion.”

She said: “I know without the scheme I would be stuck in my house. I could never manage to get to public transport and manage to wait for the bus or easily get on and off.

“Even just waiting on a taxi when you are tired and in pain is something that puts going out feel impossible.

“The scheme has enabled me to go to university, to work, socialise and met my needs as my mobility needs have declined.

“The fact that the scheme has always been robust in ensuring that vehicles are not misused and yet the fraud levels are below one per cent shows that the scheme was fair and effective.”

Motability Operations told DNS last week that Drive Smart had been introduced in response to an increase in insurance claims and “focuses on how someone actually drives, rather than relying on indirect measures of risk like postcodes”, while it had been designed to “support and reward safer driving”.

The company said early data suggested that customers using Drive Smart were having 18 per cent fewer accidents.

But one customer said on Facebook: “I am seriously thinking that this will be my last [Motability] car… the aggravation that I am feeling as a disabled person is all too much.”

Many of the comments reflect the widespread anger at the breach of privacy imposed by the scheme.

One campaigner said: “The state’s all seeing eye will soon be turned the way of other benefit claimants and workers face the same prospect from their employers.

“Stop this now before it’s too late.”

Another disabled person said on Facebook: “How dare anyone assume to monitor where I go and how far I travel.

“If this were non disabled people there would be outrage at this intrusion on people’s private life.”

One Motability customer said: “Even though I am a low mileage user (not even 10k in three years) I don’t like the idea of being constantly spied upon and my info being used for god knows what.

“I can see Motability will lose a lot of people if they persist with this nonsense [on] top of all the other changes such as mileage cuts, ridiculous advance payments etc.”

Another said: “Total invasion of privacy. It feels like they’re doing everything in their power to wipe us disabled people out from society.

“We get moaned at for using tax-payers’ money, but they want to restrict us from getting to and from work in the same breath!

“I work a 40 hour week but I couldn’t do that if I didn’t have my Motability car to get me and my wheelchair there and back every day.”

There was also widespread praise for Motability customer Charlie Proctor, who has launched a legal action against the Treasury over the budget measures that he says will put at risk the “lifeline” the scheme provides to disabled people.

One said: “Motability is a lifeline, not a luxury, and any policy that risks excluding those with the highest support needs raises serious issues around equality, independence and human rights.”

Meanwhile, the minister for social security and disability, Sir Stephen Timms, said this week in response to several written questions from MPs that responsibility for the “terms and administration” of the scheme “sits with Motability Foundation* and its Board of Governors”.

But he also told Labour’s Samantha Niblett, who asked about the impact of the new mileage restrictions on disabled people and families living in semi‑rural and rural areas: “The changes to the leasing package were announced on 26 March and include reducing the mileage allowance from 20,000 per year to 10,000 per year.

“Changes only apply to new leases and there are no changes to the mileage allowance of existing leases.

“Motability Foundation have advised that approximately 75 per cent of customers on the Scheme already use less miles than the proposed new mileage allowance.

“They have acknowledged that there will be an impact on some customers and are considering if the impact can be mitigated in some limited circumstances.”

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