Nearly half of all new car sales in Northern Ireland last year were through a scheme designed to assist drivers with disabilities.
Details of the market’s seeming dependency on the Motability scheme emerged during a recent debate in the House of Commons in London, which was followed up with debates in local media in the North.
Following information that emerged in the UK parliament and on BBC Northern Ireland’s The Nolan show, some are calling for a closer inspection of the payments made under the Motability scheme.
Motability is a private company that leases cars to people who qualify, under UK legislation, for its services. Those people will be in need of some help getting around; many will be physically disabled, while others will be carers for people who have a physical disability.
Those who qualify don’t buy their car directly. Rather, they choose one from Motability’s roster of available vehicles, according to affordability and suitability, and then Motability is paid for the vehicle by the UK government.
The scheme means people who would otherwise struggle with travel and transport are being provided with a safe and convenient way of getting about.
But in terms of the car market, it’s a behemoth. Motability’s total vehicle purchases accounted for £7 billion (€8.2 billion) worth of UK car sales last year, and all by itself Motability commanded a fifth of the total UK market at almost 400,000 vehicles, more than three times as big as the Republic’s annual new car market.
That allows it to purchase the cars it then leases to its clients at better prices.
But with nearly half of all vehicles in Northern Ireland supplied by Motability it creates a dependency on one buyer, which is an issue when the UK government is now set on shrinking its welfare bill, something that is likely to lead to tightening the criteria for acceptance.
Comparing mobility car use in Northern Ireland with other jurisdictions does not tell the full story
— Alliance Party spokesperson
It also raises questions about the application of the scheme in Northern Ireland. Why does it represent 20 per cent of the overall UK market but nearly 50 per cent of the market in Northern Ireland? Is it a case that some people are gaming the system?
A spokesperson for Northern Ireland’s Alliance Party told The Irish Times that it’s far from that simple. “While any misuse of the Mobility car system should be addressed robustly, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that many disabled people rely on this extra help to enable them to go to work and play a full part in society,” the spokesperson said.
“This is particularly important when disabled people face such significant barriers to using other forms of transport like public buses or trains. Comparing mobility car use in Northern Ireland with other jurisdictions does not tell the full story, as we have higher levels of disability than places like England.”
A spokesperson for Motability Operations, which runs the Motability scheme, said: “We follow strict eligibility criteria set by government to ensure that only the people who receive qualifying allowances can use the scheme.”
Motability also pointed out that its 51,358 customers on the Motability car scheme at the end of November 2024 is around 32 per cent of the eligible base in Northern Ireland, which the company says is in line with the rest of the UK.
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Motability’s activities are zero-rated for VAT by the UK government, so the cars it buys and supplies are done so at ex-VAT prices. At the end of the lease, the used car is sold back in a market with values in line with cars bought VAT-inclusive.
However, Motability told The Irish Times: “When the vehicle is sold at the end of the lease, the proceeds go straight back into the scheme to repay a proportion of the debt used to buy it in the first place. Any surplus left at the end of the process is reinvested and not returned to shareholders.”
Nuala Toman is the interim head of innovation and impact at Disability Action, a charity that seeks to help and advocate for the disabled community in Northern Ireland. She said the application process for Motability scheme support is challenging and rigorous.
“The high level of uptake of that payment, and the Motability numbers, reflect the challenges that face disabled people in our society,” she said.
“Within the Northern Irish context, we have a poor public transport system and we have an extreme shortage of wheelchair-accessible taxis, so many disabled people effectively live under a curfew in their own homes. It’s an issue that can very easily be misinterpreted, and the risk is that taking a one-dimensional view of the high proportion of Motability cars in Northern Ireland could encourage hostility and negativity towards disabled people.”
While Motability does operate in the Republic, it does so at a much more modest level. According to figures from the Disabled Driver’s Association of Ireland (DDAI) in 2023 – the most recent year for which figures are available – 5,034 vehicles were provided under the Disabled Drivers and Passengers Tax Relief Scheme.
The system for disabled drivers in the Republic is quite different from that in the North. The chief benefit in the South is that Vehicle Registration Tax and VAT can both be remitted, which can lead to a substantial saving in terms of the purchase price of a new car.
However, the State’s qualifying criteria are much tighter than those in Northern Ireland and Britain. To qualify for a disabled driver rebate, you generally have to be missing at least one limb, and there are further restrictions, such as the length of time you have to keep the car before selling it on.
“In 2023, the Irish Government published a report on the scheme and ultimately deemed it ‘not fit for purpose’. We’re still awaiting the introduction of a replacement scheme,” said Richard Ryder from the DDAI.
The report, by the Transport Working Group, found the current scheme “is focused more on those who can afford to buy a car and the majority of people with disabilities on lower incomes cannot avail of the scheme”.
It stated that the scheme “was conceived, designed and implemented in the 1960s to cater for the vehicular adaptation needs of a confined cohort of drivers with physical disabilities”.
The working group’s report concluded that a new scheme should be developed which “places people with disabilities as end users as an integral part of the process, thus ensuring a better chance of providing appropriate services and supports”.
