UK car scheme may be limited to 'serious disabilities' under Tory plans

The Conservative Party has unveiled plans to limit eligibility for the Motability Scheme should they triumph in the next general election. The Motability Scheme currently offers access to vehicles, scooters, and electric powered wheelchairs to approximately 815,000 people across Great Britain.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch announced at the party conference in Manchester: "We will restrict Motability vehicles to people with serious disabilities. Those cars are not for people with ADHD." This announcement is part of the Conservatives' blueprint for work and welfare, which the party has said will crack down on 6.5 million working age adults claiming benefits but not in employment "being paid to sit at home all day".

Ms Badenoch claimed the 6.5 million figure is equivalent to the entire combined populations of Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast and Manchester, reports the Daily Record. In fact the combined population of the four cities is just under two million, or 4.4 million if the Greater Manchester and Greater Glasgow areas are taken into account.

Mrs Badenoch said: "We cannot expect people to get up and go to work, and pay more and more in taxes, to subsidise millions of others not to work. It is not controversial to say this. Conference, we have done the hard work. And we have a plan to cut welfare spending."

The first part of this new approach, she said, is sumed up as "British benefits for British Citizens". She elaborated: "It is common sense that you should not draw out of a system that you haven't paid in to."

The second part is to "restrict benefits to those with more severe mental health conditions - not anxiety or mild depression". The Tory leader said: "Yes, these challenges are real, and people should get support. But they cannot be treated as a reason for a lifetime off work."

Mrs Badenoch continued: "These are the first steps of a radical reform of our welfare system. We will return to its founding principle.

"That support only goes to those that really need it. This should be common sense. But only the Conservatives understand this."

Addressing the conference, she said: "Labour, the Liberal Dems, Greens, the nationalists, and Reform are all demanding more welfare spending. They don't care that it's not fair, but we do."

The Tory leader continued to highlight how after Covid, 2,000 people a day were being signed onto out-of-work sickness benefits, labelling it a "national tragedy". She also pointed out that in one year of a Labour government, the latest figure had now more than doubled, with 5,000 new people signing on every day.

She concluded: "This isn't just about saving money - important though that is - it's far more than that. It is driven by our deep, Conservative conviction that work is a good in itself.

"And as people work, as they strive, as they provide for themselves and their families, they should not pay more and more of their money in taxes, to a state that provides less and less. So, fixing the state is next in our Blueprint."