The Corrupt Side of Motability – Mike Betts, His £1.7 Million Salary, and Hoarding Billions!
The Motability Scheme is a lifeline for disabled people all across the UK. It is paid for by the disabled person’s benefits. Mike Betts is the CEO of Motability and has been since he was appointed in 2003.
This year, Bett’s stands to take home £1.7 MILLION of the service users’ money, and recently The Treasury and Work & Pensions committees uncovered financial hoarding into the billions!
People all across the country, including MPs are thankfully outraged, and rightly so!
For those unfamiliar with the Motability Scheme and the service it provides, here are few facts about to help you out:
• Launched in 1977, The Motability Scheme provides a car, scooter, or powered wheelchair in exchange for a person’s mobility component of their disability benefit. The scheme has so far provided over 4.5 million cars to disabled people.
• To be eligible for the scheme, a person MUST be receiving one of the following mobility allowances and have at least 12 months left on their award.
• Higher Rate Mobility Component of Disability Living Allowance (HRMC DLA)
• Enhanced Rate Mobility Component of Personal Independence Payment (ERMC PIP)
• War Pensioners' Mobility Supplement (WPMS)
• Armed Forces Independence Payment (AFIP)
• Unlike some assumptions, the Motability scheme is NOT free for disabled people. It is paid for with the Mobility Component of the Personal Independence Payment or Disability Living Allowance, it is a service in exchange for the whole payment, totalling £239 per month and depending on the car can sometimes come with an advance payment attached.
• The cost of having a car, scooter, or powered wheelchair through the Motability Scheme is almost the same as if you were to get a car on finance but with the knowledge that insurance, MOT, and roadside assistance is included.
The difference is, most people on disability benefits are unable to get a car on finance because without a job, finance is near impossible to be accepted for. And even for those with a job, finance can still be unattainable.
Unless of course it’s via a loan shark or the loan companies who charge over 1500% APR meaning anyone who takes a payment through them is more unlikely to get out of debt to the company, and is certainly to pay a hell of a lot more than they borrow.
• The Motability customer is given a selection of vehicles, scooters, and powered wheelchairs to choose from. We even get to pick a colour and have any vehicle adaptations added to the vehicle. These adaptations are divided into 3 categories: Driving, Stowage, and Access.
Driving adaptations can include hand controls, electronic accelerators, left for accelerators, pedal modifications, steering aids, and remote control devices. Stowage adaptations can include rooftop stowage, and a car boot hoist to get a user’s powered wheelchair or scooter in and out of the vehicle. Access adaptations can include transfer plates, electric person hoists, and swivel seats.
• The most important part of the Motability Scheme is it provides people with disability freedom and some form of independence. A lot of the service users would be unable to work, socialise, or leave the house at all without the scheme. Myself included.
So how is it that a scheme with such honourable intentions is now using vulnerable people’s money to pay the company’s CEO Mike Betts £1.7 million, when their whole policy is to get the lowest quotes possible so that service users could get the best deal and not have their already extremely low income taken for anything other than the vehicle and service they need?
To put Mike Bett’s salary in perspective, his salary has grown by 78% from £954,000 in 2008. Bett’s current salary us over ten times what the Prime Minister earns!
Motability has defended the salary by saying “Mike Bett’s pay was based on a comparison with FTSE 250 firms.”
Not only has the Motability been using their customers’ payments to fund such a ridiculous salary, but The Treasury and Work & Pensions committees have also found funds of £2.4 billion g needlessly hoarded. The National Audit Office is due to look into this, the government has said.
A spokesperson for The Department of Work and Pensions had this to say on the issue:
“The Secretary of State has stated that Motability provides an extremely valuable service to disabled people but the levels of executive pay and financial reserves are concerning.”
So how has this happened?
Motability Operations, the firm which runs the scheme, is a monopoly which currently faces no competition.
The two Parliamentary committees are arguing that the government needs to explain why state assistance for the firm, in the absence of competition, is an appropriate use of public money.
Nicky Morgan MP, chair of the Treasury Committee, said the “high levels of executive pay and significant financial reserves are difficult to square with the honourable objectives of the scheme”.
Normally when a company is found to be hoarding service users’ money and forking out a ridiculous salary, the customers would take their business elsewhere. Due to Motability being the only company out there providing this service, myself and the millions of other disabled people and veterans out there have no other option to turn to. Without this service, I would be unable to leave my house, others unable to work, visit family and friends.
To have this freedom, comes with a price.
Do you think Motability has lost its way? I’d love to hear from any of you with any comments or questions on the subject.
Whether you’re disabled yourself, know someone who is, or is just utterly infuriated at where tax payers money ends up, please call Motability Customer Services team on 0300 456 4566 or email them at [email protected]
Alternatively, you can phone or email your local MP demanding change.
We are stronger together