Motability leases cars and wheelchair accessible vehicles to people in receipt of qualifying benefits and under current rules, you are entitled to a payment of £750 to help toward costs
People in receipt of certain disability benefits will no longer get £750 toward the cost of leasing a vehicle after this Friday.
Motability leases cars and wheelchair accessible vehicles to people in receipt of qualifying benefits and under current rules, you are entitled to a payment of £750 to help toward the increasing price of new cars. This is known as the New Vehicle Payment.
You can choose to send this directly to your dealer to cover your advanced payment, or have this paid in full to you after you get your vehicle. However, the New Vehicle Payment is ending after January 3, 2025 for new customers. Those who are already on the scheme and haven’t received the payment yet will receive it with their next vehicle. It is available once per customer.
Motability currently has over 1,000 cars, including over 50 that require no advance payment, which means the £750 New Vehicle Payment would go directly to the claimant. For scooters and powered wheelchairs, it is called New Product Payment and is worth £100 instead.
Motability – which has around 80,000 customers across the UK – is available to those on the higher rate mobility part of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Child Disability Payment (CDP) or Adult Disability Payment (ADP). It takes payments straight from your benefits and covers your insurance, servicing and breakdown.
As well as help with leasing cars, Motability also offers 40 hours of free driving lessons for people who want to learn how to drive. If you’re accepted, you’ll be provided with driving lessons through the AA Driving School. The AA will find an instructor for you who will then contact you to arrange your first lesson.
However, you should keep in mind that you’ll still need to pay for both your theory and practical driving tests. Lessons should be taken regularly and completed within 12 months, according to Motability guidelines. The average driving lesson normally costs between £25 to £35 an hour, according to Compare the Market.
It comes as PIP is set to rise by 1.7% next April as part of the annual benefits uprating. PIP is paid every four weeks and under the current rates, the maximum you can receive is £737.20. This is for someone claiming the higher rate of both the daily living and mobility components. These rates will increase to the following levels from next April and mean the maximum you could get will hit £749.80. Here is how PIP rates are changing:
Daily living
Mobility
