Latest news with #MotabilityOperations
Engadget
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- Engadget
Kia debuts the PV5 WAV, a wheelchair-ready electric van
Kia has introduced a wheelchair-accessible vehicle (WAV) iteration of its first electric van. The PV5 WAV offers several accessibility features, such as a side-entry system so a wheelchair user can board the van from the sidewalk, and a quick-use entry ramp rated for 300kg (661 lbs). It's equipped with a tip-up seat in the third row so other riders can assist a wheelchair passenger from the side. The PV5 WAV also has a wheelchair-specific belt fastening system. The brand collaborated with Motability Operations on the debut of the PV5 WAV. Motability Operations is a long-term partner of the UK's vehicle leasing plan that helps people with disabilities to have an accessible mode of transportation. "By integrating cutting-edge Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) technology with thoughtful design, we are paving the way for a future where everyone can enjoy the benefits of sustainable mobility, and our partnership with Motability Operations is a testament to our commitment to making this vision a reality," Sangdae Kim, executive vice president and head of Kia's PBV Division, said. The PBV tech has been the foundation for a few of Kia's new vehicle announcements over the past year, including at CES 2024 . The standard model of the PV5, Kia's first electric van, recently began pre-orders in the UK. Kia hasn't shared pricing information yet about the WAV model, but the non-WAV version retails starting at £32,995 (about $44,000).
The Independent
02-04-2025
- Automotive
- The Independent
The boss behind billion-pound car scheme Motability caught in Britain's benefits row
It was meant to be one of Britain's quieter welfare programmes – a behind-the-scenes scheme to help people with serious disabilities lease a car, using their benefits. But Motability has become a lightning rod in 2025, with questions over billion-pound profits, social media outrage over perceived abuse and a leadership team still battling an old reputation for high pay and poor PR. The company's latest filings show a total salary bill of £100.8m in 2024. The highest-paid director – understood to be CEO Andrew Miller – received a salary of £460,000 and a total package worth £747,000, down slightly from £765,000 the previous year. Collectively, directors earned a £1.2m in salary rising to £3.4m overall, including pensions and benefits. Meanwhile the controversial motor scheme, which allows people claiming a qualifying mobility allowance such as Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to lease a car, has swelled to include more than 815,000 users – up by 200,000 in just two years. Amid £5bn in government welfare cuts and viral social media commentary, some critics have questioned whether the scheme is still fit for purpose. But according to Motability itself, 96 per cent of its fleet is made up of economy vehicles, not luxury cars, and the vast majority of customers are fully entitled to what they receive. At the helm of the operation is Miller, the low-key yet media-savvy CEO of Motability Operations (MO), the commercial arm that runs the scheme. He took over in 2020 from Mike Betts, whose extravagant pay package drew fury from MPs and disability rights campaigners alike. Betts was once paid £1.7m in salary plus a £2.2m bonus – a sum the then-chair of the Work and Pensions Committee called "obscene". While Betts came under fire in some quarters for his luxury lifestyle, Miller has been keen to reset the public image of Motability. That is perhaps highlighted by recent job offerings for a new public affairs manager, senior strategic communications manager and director of public policy, the latter of which the Telegraph reported as being advertised on a six-figure salary. Both the other positions were above £50,000 salaries, while a lower-salaried job of stakeholder engagement manager is now posted with a remit of 'development of relationships with industry and disability groups'. As for Miller, his background, unusually for a car boss, is in media and consumer brands. He previously served as CEO and CFO of Guardian Media Group, CEO of McDonalds Nordics and held senior finance roles at Auto Trader, Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo. He has also served as a non-executive director at Channel 4 and the AA – experience that has given him a feel for both the political and reputational pressure that can weigh on a publicly accountable organisation. At his previous roles, Miller has gained a reputation as an expert in managing significant business transition: The Guardian into the digital age, McDonalds through the rise of fast-food delivery, now Motability and its attempts to electrify the best part of a million vehicles in under a decade. Under Miller's stewardship, Motability is trying to stay ahead of scrutiny and technology alike. In 2024, the company made a £565m loss – a dramatic fall from its £748m pre-tax profit the year before. Revenue, however, grew nearly 25 per cent to £6.9bn, offset in part due to major investments into the transition to electric vehicles and customer support amid a punishing inflationary climate. The shift includes the installation of 66,000 free home chargers for customers – part of a £300m push to electrify the fleet. Still, Miller's primary challenge is not just modernising the business but defending its very legitimacy. Owned by four banks – HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Barclays – Motability Operations does not pay dividends. Its profits are either reinvested or donated to the overseeing charity Motability, which then distributes grants to customers most in need. But in a cost-of-living crisis, that arrangement is under increasing scrutiny, given the banks still profit from loans interest, management fees and bond issuance. In part that is down to Motability's success, or at least growth: the more cars they need to buy and the more customers there are to service, the more their borrowing needs can increase. Still, that has led to further critique of the entire arrangement. In a rare media intervention, Miller recently wrote in The Times that the company removes thousands of ineligible users each year, and that for every £1 spent via disability allowances, £1.50 is returned to the UK economy. He also warned of 'sickfluencers' abusing the system – a nod to the TikTok-fuelled backlash that has sometimes muddied public perception of the scheme. Miller's defence of the company is also data-driven. The organisation now provides a quarter of a million used cars into the second-hand market each year, making it the largest single-source vehicle supplier in the UK. And while it no longer makes the blockbuster profits seen under Betts, Motability's economic footprint – it claims £4.3bn in annual UK contribution – suggests it's a far cry from the gravy train some accuse it of being. Still, the storm hasn't fully cleared. Motability has become emblematic of a larger political debate about who is deserving of state support. That argument has only intensified in light of recent welfare reforms – and for Miller, the pressure is unlikely to lift any time soon. In short, Motability remains one of Britain's most important but misunderstood welfare institutions. And for Andrew Miller – who has swapped the newspaper boardroom for one of the most scrutinised jobs in the third sector – keeping the wheels turning smoothly is proving to be anything but straightforward.
Telegraph
30-03-2025
- Automotive
- Telegraph
Motability launches PR drive amid row over BMWs on benefits
The charity behind a scheme under fire for providing subsidised BMWs to disability benefits claimants is to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on a public relations fightback. The Motability Foundation, which oversees the taxpayer-subsidised Motability scheme, is hiring a new Public Affairs Manager, Senior Strategic Communications Manager and Director of Public Policy on a combined salary of at least £250,000. It comes as the service has faced a string of negative headlines in recent weeks over its spiralling costs. Earlier this month The Telegraph highlighted a series of benefit fraud cases where claimants exaggerated illnesses to acquire Motability cars, including a mother who exaggerated her arthritis to obtain seven cars on the scheme. Critics said the investment shows Motability has a 'growing PR problem', with the charity 'clearly worried' about its reputation. The Motability scheme allows successful claimants to exchange part of their disability payments for brand new cars – including BMWs and Ford Mustangs that would otherwise cost as much as £54,000 – if they also pay a down payment. Surge in popularity It has seen a surge in popularity in recent years, with the number of users ballooning from 635,000 in 2020 to a record 815,000 in 2024. Over the same period, the scheme's income from benefits payments – paid for by the taxpayer – has increased by £800 million, rising by 41 per cent from £1.99 billion to £2.81 billion. It has been branded out of control by critics who fear the broad range of qualifying conditions – which include ADHD, autism and anxiety, providing they affect the claimant's mobility – leaves it vulnerable to exploitation. However, it was ultimately left unscathed by Sir Keir Starmer's sweeping welfare cuts, as the changes to personal independence payments (PIP) – the benefit required to qualify for Motability – will only alter its 'daily living' component. It means anyone who receives the enhanced level of 'mobility' PIP, worth £3,939 annually, can continue to lease a subsidised vehicle, subject to an additional down payment, worth up to 12 times as much. The Motability Foundation oversees the Motability scheme, while contracting a separate company, Motability Operations, to run the day-to-day service. In recent weeks, the charity has sought to hire three new staff who deal with PR – a Public Affairs Manager on £50,000, a Senior Strategic Communications Manager on £60,000-£64,000, and a new Director of Policy and Oversight on £140,000. It is still accepting applications for the Public Affairs Manager, who will be tasked with 'promoting and enhancing awareness of the Motability Foundation among key political stakeholders'. The job description appears to have been written prior to Labour's benefits cuts, as it refers to 'potential welfare reform on the horizon'. The Senior Strategic Communications Manager role was advertised in the last few days. New 'policy unit' The advert for the Director of Policy and Oversight, which was listed three weeks ago, according to LinkedIn, is now closed. This more senior director will have a wider strategic role. However, they will be required to work alongside the public affairs team. They will also be responsible for setting up a new 'policy unit' and maintaining an 'influential relationship' with the Government. Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, told The Telegraph: 'Motability is clearly worried that it has been found out as an abuse of billions of pounds of taxpayer cash. It is hiring expensive PR and policy staff to defend its position.' Joe Robertson, the Tory MP for Isle of Wight East, said: 'Motability clearly has a growing PR problem, and there are serious questions to answer. 'The scheme was intended to support those with genuine mobility needs, but a whole industry has emerged which is responsible for one in five new cars on the road today and for pushing the Government's EV agenda. 'Motability has clearly grown well beyond its original intention, and the taxpayer is picking up the bill.' He added: 'The Government cannot sit by. It must investigate and clamp down on both fraudulent activity and wasteful spending as part of its so-called welfare reforms.'
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Car scheme for benefits claimants admits thousands of cases of abuse
A company that provides cars to disabled people in exchange for a portion of their benefits has admitted to finding thousands of cases of abuse of the taxpayer-subsidised scheme. Motability Operations, which has grown to become Britain's largest car buyer, said it removed 5,300 customers from the service – or an average 15 per day – last year after investigations into misuse. Andrew Miller, the company's chief executive, said the business looked at 35,899 claims of abuse of the scheme last year. The revelation comes as the scheme, which is not run by the Government, comes under intense scrutiny amid concerns about its spiralling cost. Motability was handed a record £2.8bn of taxpayer cash last year to fund new cars for people on mobility benefits. As well as helping benefits-claimants to access a car, Motability covers insurance costs and has installed more than 66,000 charging points at the homes of people on disability benefits free of charge. Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, told The Telegraph last week: 'The whole Motability scheme was well-intentioned and had the right ambitions when it started out but it has now basically been hijacked and is being used and abused by a whole load of freeloaders. 'Bluntly, if you've got a mental health issue or ADHD for one of your children, you don't need a free car from the taxpayer.' Mr Miller said Motability was launching a crackdown on the number of people permitted to use each car it provides after finding evidence of possible misuse, such as a number of journeys that were happening between 11pm and 6am. 'We have to start looking at tracking more to try and counter some of the very valid challenges we're getting on people using the scheme in not the way it's intended,' Mr Miller told the Financial Times. 'Are we perhaps being too generous on the insurance criteria? We're having to look at that quite heavily at the moment.' Founded in the 1970s, Motability has come under scrutiny as the Government announced £5bn of cuts to the welfare system last week. Britain's welfare crisis has led to a huge spike in the number of people eligible for a free car through the scheme. Around 815,000 people now qualify, up from 650,000 two years ago, after a surge in the numbers qualifying for higher rate personal independent payments (PIP) that include a 'mobility' payment. Mr Miller said that more than 40pc of its customers have a household income of less than £20,000. The average Motability user is in their 50s. While a significant minority of Motability users have a low income, the leasing scheme allows successful claimants to exchange part of their disability payments for brand new cars – including BMWs and Ford Mustangs that would otherwise cost as much as £54,000 – if they make an upfront payment in addition to signing over a portion of their benefits. Critics have questioned the appropriateness of offering such expensive cars through the scheme. Motability has been branded out of control by critics who fear that the broad range of conditions under which recipients may qualify – such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism and anxiety – leaves it vulnerable to exploitation. Applicants must prove that such conditions affect their mobility to be eligible. Motability was contacted for comment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
11-03-2025
- Automotive
- Telegraph
The car giant cashing in on Britain's disability benefits boom
When Rachel Reeves lays out her plans to slash Britain's welfare bill later this month, Andrew Miller will be paying close attention. Miller is chief executive of Motability Operations, a company that leases cars to people with disabilities. While little known publicly, the business has grown to become a giant in recent years. A surge in the number of people claiming disability benefits has seen the number of Motability customers rise by about 200,000 over the past two years to 815,000. People exchange some of their disability benefits for access to a car, helping them get around and giving them independence. Such is its scale, nearly one in five new cars sold in Britain today now comes from Motability. Turnover at the group jumped by a quarter to £6.9bn last year – making it bigger than ITV, Burberry and Direct Line in sales terms. Yet with Reeves and Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, poised to slash Britain's welfare bill, there are questions over whether the group's scale can be maintained. Any cuts to the benefits regime would naturally rattle the business. This matters not just for Miller and his colleagues but the City of London, too. Motability sold about $5bn (£3.9bn) worth of debt last year and has already tapped markets for a further $1bn in 2025, according to Bloomberg. This has pushed it into the upper echelons of the largest UK corporate borrowers. Motability's journey Few could have predicted this when Motability Operations was founded in 1977. The scheme was launched by Labour peer Lord Goodman as a government initiative to make it easier for disabled people to get a car they wanted. Prior to its launch, disabled people had to rely on an aesthetically-challenged three-wheeler known as the 'Invacar' to get around. The Motability scheme let people swap benefits for a wide array of normal cars, giving them greater greater freedom. Motability Operations, a private company, now runs the scheme under a seven-year rolling contract from the Motability Foundation, a charity that counts the King as a patron. Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest jointly own the operations business and help underwrite many of its bond deals. The banks do not receive dividends and all profits are ploughed back into the charity but the group paid around £362m to service its debts last year. Around 20 manufacturers, such as VW and Mercedes, supply around 900 models to the scheme and drivers can choose to pay a top-up payment to get the best models. Drivers get a basic Dacia Spring by sacrificing some of their benefits, for example, or can pay £7,999 up front to upgrade to a BMW i4. Until recently, Motability enjoyed slow, steady growth over decades. Miller, who previously ran the Guardian Media Group when it owned Autotrader, took charge of the business in 2021 and has overseen much of the recent period of runaway growth. Booming benefits claims Expansion has not been fuelled by any boardroom wizardry so much as a surge in the number of people claiming benefits. The number of people entitled to Personal Independence Payments (Pip), Britain's main disability benefit, has jumped from 2.6m in 2020 to 3.6m last year. It is forecast to rise to 4.2m claimants by 2030, according to estimates published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The bill for sickness and disability benefits is on course to hit £100bn before the end of the decade, rising from £65bn last year. The rapid rise is placing intense pressure on public finances and causing growing alarm in Westminster. To stem the increase, ministers are planning to cut £6bn from the benefits bill, with around £5bn expected to come from Pip cuts. The Chancellor is expected to set out details alongside the Spring Statement on March 26. The vast majority of customers who use Motability receive Pip, which pays up to £9,600 a year. Around £2.8bn of the company's £6.9bn of revenues comes from customers exchanging their benefits, while the rest comes from the resale of old vehicles. Any reduction in its customer base could mean a change to its funding model in future. Although lenders to the company have traditionally seen the group as a super-safe investment, the headwinds could make it a harder investment to gauge. 'The feeling was it's an easy to understand business and most didn't expect cyclicality to it being in the auto sector and because there was always going to be an underwriting of the demand and it made it a very easy credit to own. It was super safe,' said one bondholder. 'Loads of people owned them because there was nothing to worry about but now people are looking more closely.' Motability's fleet of vehicles is worth £14bn, with about £10bn of this paid for with bank and bond market debts. Despite the significant borrowings, it remains well capitalised with a healthy buffer to withstand any problems. Matthew Hamilton-James, Motability's chief finance officer, insists the company has a 'robust operating model and financial structure' that makes it 'sustainable through market volatility'. Second-hand market Elsewhere, the car industry is watching to see what impact the benefit changes might have on the second-hand car market. Motability is a key cog because it creates a ready supply of used vehicles for dealerships to sell on. Nine in the 10 of the cars on the Motability scheme are not specifically adapted to accommodate a disability, making them easier to sell on. Last year the company resold about 277,000 vehicles to second hand dealerships. Jim Reid, who runs a car dealership in Aberdeen, buys around 10 vehicles a month from Motability, representing about 25pc of the flow of cars into his dealership. Any slowdown in supply 'would definitely be affecting the market and it would have a knock on effect on all of the prices of cars,' he says. 'Anything which means less cars will obviously be an issue.' The reliance on selling on cars also poses another problem. Despite making healthy profits for several years, Motability reported a massive £534m loss last year after taking a hit on the resale value of some of its fleet. The resale price of second-hand cars – particularly electric vehicles (EVs) – has dropped considerably in recent years. 'The used car market has definitely made a difference and you would worry when that falls away. The residual value in that would be a worry,' the bondholder says. Hamilton-James said: 'Last year, we continued to see a changing operating environment, caused by the volatility of the automotive and insurance markets and the reduced value of second-hand cars. 'We are confident in the economics of our business model, and our robust capital reserves position us well for the future and to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the scheme.' Motability has been a surprise beneficiary of the recent surge in disability benefit payments. But its period of runaway growth may well be coming to an end.
