Vox Political was right about Motability – there was more to this ‘shocker’ than the Mail implied

So Motability’s “£2.4 billion cash stockpile” is in fact nothing of the sort.

The money is needed to buy cars for people with disabilities and to protect it against business risks. That seems much more realistic than the far-right rag’s claims.

There does remain the matter of chief exec Mike Betts’s £1.7 million annual salary, which does seem exorbitant.

But an organisation’s remuneration schemes are its own business, and it seems entirely unfair of the Mail to complain about one executive being paid £1.7 million when others, such as bankers, take home far more while producing far less.

In a statement issued this afternoon, Motability Operations said: ‘The Daily Mail claims there is a £2.4 bn ‘cash stockpile’ or ‘spare £2.4bn’.

‘It’s quite clear to us that the Daily Mail has totally misunderstood what this £2.4 billion of reserves represents. It is not held as cash but is used to buy cars for disabled people. This reduces the amount of borrowing required.

‘It also underpins the scheme’s financial stability, protecting it from the business risks it faces, particularly in relation to used car values. The Charity Commission has today stated “that we consider the level of operating capital held by the company in order to guarantee the scheme to be conservative”.’

Moving on to the issue of the salary paid to Mike Betts, the charity said: ‘The remuneration of Motability operations directors is decided by the Motability operations board, based on the advice of their remuneration committee.

‘Remuneration is reviewed against the market to ensure that it is both competitive over the long term, and to ensure that any rewards are related to performance especially in relation to the quality of service provided to customers.’

It added: ‘The current chief executive of Motability Operations, Mike Betts, has been in place since 2003 and has been instrumental in ensuring the company is able to operate successfully and effectively.’

Source: Motability hits back over ‘huge cash stockpile’ and boss’s salary – Car Dealer Magazine


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6 Comments

  1. JohnDee February 8, 2018 at 3:16 am - Reply

    ” … ensure that any rewards are related to performance … ”
    So, looks like he’ll get a salary cut soon then ‘cos he’s going to be performing for several hundred thousand less disabled people after they all get their ‘lifetime’ DLA transformed into the miraculous PIP ‘Zero Points’ and their cars go back to the shop.

    • JohnDee February 8, 2018 at 3:23 am - Reply

      Ooops! ‘Missed your previous post where you made the same point…

  2. JohnDee February 8, 2018 at 3:18 am - Reply

    Didn’t I read a story somewhere, several months ago – that because of the deluge of spare disabled peoples’ cars going back to the shop, it had distorted the second-hand car market so seriously that they had decided to pack in stealing any more disabled peoples’ vehicles?

  3. Christine Bergin February 8, 2018 at 7:48 am - Reply

    Years ago I read an explanation of the Motability scheme that led me to have grave doubts about it. My sister is disabled and over many years we have sought to use her higher rate mobility allowance to fund and maintain her own vehicle. We were aware that if the car was taken for some reason then she would be housebound and would need to magic the resources to get mobile again and would also be penalised by having to restart her insurance from scratch with NO no claims bonus
    . I believe the scheme was Non Profit but if the DLA was more than the services provided there was no need to return the over-payment to the disabled person. As the banks ‘generously’ funded the scheme it didn’t take long for them to figure out that the interest on the deposit of DLA would be a nice little earner and could be kept for their own purposes even if the DLA had to be out of their reach.
    Another good idea turned into a money making scam by the banks.

  4. Jenny February 8, 2018 at 9:21 am - Reply

    Another way of bashing disabled people and of implying that we are scroungers

  5. Diogenes February 8, 2018 at 6:23 pm - Reply

    misunderstood or misrepresented?

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