Motability: is it true that the disability scheme is taking UK taxpayers for a ride?
-Understanding the rightwing backlash over the government scheme helping people with serious disabilities get cars

Motability：残疾计划真的在欺骗英国纳税人吗？
——理解右翼人士对政府帮助严重残疾人士获得汽车计划的强烈反对
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处



(The Motability scheme has been unfairly portrayed as an example of con artists milking the taxpayer.)

（Motability计划被不公平地描绘成骗子从纳税人身上榨取钱财的例子。）
新闻：

Motability really ought to be a boring subject: a government scheme helping people with serious disabilities get a car by using a portion of their benefits to pay for the lease. But over the past week, anyone who had never heard of Motability would have got a more lurid impression.

Motability真的应该是一个无聊的话题：一个政府计划帮助有严重残疾的人获得一辆车，用他们的一部分福利来支付租赁费。但在过去的一周里，任何从未听说过Motability的人都会对此有一个更加耸人听闻的印象。

First reported in the Daily Mail, and then in a string of follow-up stories, Motability was portrayed not as a useful mechanism for helping people with disabilities but an outrageous example of con artists milking the taxpayer.

《每日邮报》首先报道了这一消息，随后又有一系列后续报道称，Motability并没有被描绘成一个帮助残疾人的有用机制，而是一个骗子从纳税人身上榨取钱财的无耻例子。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


The claim is that many Motability customers do not really need a car at all: that, in the words of the shadow welfare secretary, Helen Whately, this is “a classic case of a well-intentioned initiative that has got way out of hand”. So how much of that is true?

他们声称，许多Motability客户根本就不需要一辆车：用影子福利大臣海伦·惠特利的话来说，这是“一项本意良好的倡议失控的典型案例”。那么这其中有多少是真的呢？

How does the Motability scheme work?
As a parliamentary report noted last week, 29% of disabled adults do not have access to a car, against 16% of non-disabled adults. They are more likely to be struggling financially, and to need help from a family member or carer to travel. The Motability scheme is intended to help mitigate those problems.

Motability计划如何运作？
上周的一份议会报告指出，29%的残疾成年人没有车，而非残疾成年人的这一比例为16%。他们更有可能在经济上挣扎，需要家庭成员或照顾者的帮助才能旅行。Motability计划旨在帮助缓解这些问题。

“Disabled people face so many barriers in accessing transport,” said Dr Mark Carew, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s International Centre for Evidence in Disability. (He co-wrote a report that received funding from Motability in 2023.) “Whether it’s train stations that aren’t wheelchair accessible, or no ramp available when you’ve booked it, or other travellers refusing to get out of the wheelchair space – there are lots of reasons Motability is important.”

伦敦卫生和热带医学学院国际残疾证据中心的马克·卡鲁博士说：“残疾人在乘坐交通工具方面面临很多障碍。”（他参与撰写了一份报告，该报告于2023年获得了Motability的资助。）“无论是火车站没有轮椅通道，还是你预订了坡道后没有坡道可用，或者其他旅客拒绝离开轮椅空间——Motability很重要的原因有很多。”

The scheme is run by a private company, overseen by a charitable foundation, that buys new cars then leases them to claimants for three years before selling them on. The payments come from government benefits, usually a portion of the personal independence payment, the main working-age benefit for people with disabilities. The recent scrutiny is based partly on the remarkable growth in eligibility – with the customer base rising by about 200,000 in two years, to 815,000.

Motability计划由一家私人公司运营，由一家慈善基金会监督。该计划购买新车，然后将其租给申请人三年，然后再出售。这些款项来自政府福利，通常是个人独立金的一部分，这是残疾人的主要工作年龄福利。最近的审查部分是基于批准的显著增长——客户基础在两年内增加了约20万人，达到81.5万人。

There have been reasonable criticisms over high executive pay and warnings that Motability is sitting on excessive reserves – £4bn in September last year. But the money made from used cars goes back into the scheme, not to shareholders – and, all in all, Carew says, “it clearly delivers value for the taxpayer.

人们对该计划高管薪酬过高提出了合理的批评，并警告称，Motability坐实了过多的资金储备——去年9月为40亿英镑。但从二手车中赚到的钱又回到了该计划中，而不是给股东——总之，卡鲁说，“这显然为纳税人带来了价值。”

“But it’s not just about that. People with disabilities aren’t aliens – we’re the friends and family of everyone else. This is a powerful way for them to make choices that go some way to level the playing field.”

“但不仅仅是这些。残疾人不是外星人——我们是其他人的朋友和家人。这是一种强有力的方式，让他们做出在某种程度上创造公平竞争环境的选择。”

Why should people with disabilities get a new car for free on top of their benefits?
A common refrain in the coverage – “Do you want a free new car?” the Times’s Alice Thomson asked – but one which misses a central point: the Pip (personal independence payment) funding that goes to Motability is money customers would have been getting anyway.

为什么残疾人在享受福利的同时还能免费得到一辆新车？
报道中经常出现的一个问题是“你想要一辆免费的新车吗？”《泰晤士报》的爱丽丝·汤姆森问道——但这句话忽略了一个核心问题：Motability获得的Pip（个人独立支付）资金是客户本来就会得到的钱。

If they were not getting a car, they would have it to spend on something else. And if they want a more expensive car – perhaps needing a larger vehicle for essential equipment, perhaps shockingly able to have preferences despite also having a disability – they have to make a down payment of up to £8,000 themselves.

如果他们不买车，他们也会把这个钱花在其他东西上。如果他们想要一辆更贵的车——也许需要一辆更大的车来装一些必要的设备，也许令人震惊的是，尽管他们有残疾，他们也能有自己的偏好——他们必须自己支付高达8000英镑的首付。

The cars are new, meanwhile, and retain a significant resale value at the end of the lease. Scrapping Motability would not save a penny from the benefits bill.

与此同时，这些车都是新的，在租期结束时还保留着很大的转售价值。取消Motability不会从福利账单上省下一分钱。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Shouldn’t prestige brands be excluded?
Another prominent claim: Motability is giving “subsidised BMWs” and “50-grand Mercs” to people who do not need them. And it’s true that if you search the Motability website, you can find premium cars.

难道不应该把名牌汽车排除在外吗？
另一个突出的主张是：Motability将“补贴的宝马”和“5万美元的奔驰”送给那些不需要它们的人。的确，如果你在Motability网站上搜索，你可以找到高档车。

But the vast majority are much more ordinary: economy brands make up 94% of Motability’s fleet. And there’s a ceiling of £45,000 on petrol and diesel cars (£55,000 for electric), because cars costing more than that depreciate too fast to be viable.

但绝大多数都是普通得多的车型：经济型车型占Motability车队的94%。汽油和柴油车的最高限额为4.5万英镑（电动汽车为5.5万英镑），因为超过这个限额的汽车贬值得太快，不可行。

The cost to the taxpayer of the more expensive models is exactly the same. The fact that the lease only lasts three years is, likewise, motivated by the fact that selling on older cars would mean a worse return. The cherrypicking coverage implies that disabled people should not get a choice: instead, they should exist in a state of constant gratitude, and piss off in their wonky three-wheeler.

对纳税人来说，更昂贵型号的成本是完全相同的。同样，租期只有三年的原因是，受到出售旧车意味着更低的回报这一现实的驱动。这种故意挑选的报道暗示，残疾人不应该有选择：相反，他们应该生活在一种不断感激的状态中，坐着他们摇摇晃晃的三轮车滚一边去。

But aren’t people who wet the bed or who have Munchausen syndrome taking advantage of the scheme?
This is perhaps the most misleading claim, visible in many variants. Cars are going to “bed-wetting boy racers”, said the Reform MP Richard Tice. In the Daily Mail, Richard Littlejohn asked: “Why should you get a free car simply because you’re fat?” And in the Daily Telegraph, Allison Pearson told us: “If I said I felt depressed or constipated … [the government] might give me a BMW.”

但是尿床的人和患有孟乔森综合症的人不是在利用这个计划吗？
这可能是最具误导性的说法，在许多变体中都可以看到。改革党议员理查德·泰斯说，汽车将流向“尿床男孩赛车手”。理查德·利特尔约翰在《每日邮报》上问道：“为什么仅仅因为你胖就可以得到一辆免费的车呢？”在《每日电讯报》上，艾莉森·皮尔逊告诉我们：“如果我说我感到沮丧或便秘……（政府）可能会给我一辆宝马。”

These claims can be traced to the Daily Mail’s first article. “Pip ‘mobility’ claimants do not actually have to have a physical disability to qualify for a Motability vehicle,” it said. “Claimants with a mental health condition, such as anxiety, can also apply.” It cited approval rates for bedwetting, or enuresis (35%), ADHD (49%), obesity (77%), agoraphobia (66%), and Munchausen syndrome, a condition where the sufferer fakes a medical condition for attention (54%).

这些说法可以追溯到《每日邮报》的第一篇文章。它写道：“Pip‘mobility’申请人实际上并不一定要有身体残疾才有资格获得机动车辆。有焦虑等心理健康问题的申请人也可以申请。”报道列举了以下残疾类型的申请通过率：尿床或遗尿症（35%）、多动症（49%）、肥胖（77%）、广场恐怖症（66%）和孟乔森综合征（一种患者假装生病以引起注意的疾病）（54%）。

But those figures cover any level of Pip, not the higher mobility payment needed for Motability. Yes, 54% of people who claimed Pip with Munchausen syndrome in October 2024 were accepted – but that amounted to six successful claimants. There were 41 with enuresis. Those figures tell us nothing about how many got the higher rate. But the scoring system would not typically put them in that category without a significant physical impairment.

但这些数字涵盖了任何水平的Pip，不包括Motability所需的更高的流动性支付。是的，在2024年10月，声称Pip患有孟乔森综合症的人中有54%被批准了，但这总共有6人成功索赔。遗尿症41例。这些数字并没有告诉我们有多少人获得了更高的费率。但如果没有明显的身体损伤，评分系统通常不会把他们归入这一类。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


There were likely more for some of the other categories, which have a much larger base – but what is certain is that the vast majority who get a car through Motability have a significant physical disability. “It’s very tough to qualify for Pip’s higher mobility award,” Carew said. “Plenty of people who struggle making journeys don’t qualify.”

其他一些类别可能会有更多，这些类别的基础要大得多——但可以肯定的是，绝大多数通过Motability获得汽车的人都有严重的身体残疾。卡鲁说：“要获得Pip的高灵活性奖励是非常困难的。很多在行程中苦苦挣扎的人都不符合条件。”

Accompanying this legend is the idea that online “sickfluencers” are teaching people how to game the system. But these videos are often unreliable. The social media accounts of a teenager who posted about getting a car because he was autistic, which featured prominently in the outrage, carried enough information for Motability to look into his case: he turned out to have been rejected.

伴随这一传说的是这样一种观点，即在线“疾病影响者”正在教人们如何与体制博弈。但这些视频往往不可靠。一名青少年在社交媒体上发布了自己因为患有自闭症而得到车的帖子，这是引发众怒的主要原因。这些帖子提供的信息足以让Motability调查他的情况：他被拒绝了。

So where did this story come from?
Allegations that Motability is infested with people making bogus claims have existed for many years. Part of the timeline is routine: first a fascinating Bloomberg piece focusing on Motability’s impact on the car market, then the Daily Mail, then everyone else.

那么这个故事是从哪里来的呢？
关于Motability充斥着虚假申请的指控已经存在多年。时间表的一部分是例行的：首先是一篇引人入胜的彭博文章，聚焦于Motability对汽车市场的影响，然后是《每日邮报》，然后是其他所有人。

Before that, though, the story gained momentum in a stranger corner of the internet – through a couple of rightwing X accounts, @loftussteve and @maxtempers. The anonymous user behind Max Tempers has been banging the drum since at least December, when he suggested that claimants should only be allowed to drive a hideous old car with MOTABILITY written on it. A few weeks later, a post of his about grooming gangs was shared by Elon Musk, and became the ground zero of a whole other dodgy social media frenzy.

然而，在此之前，这个故事在互联网的一个陌生角落获得了动力——通过两个右翼的X账户，@loftussteve和@maxtempers。Max Tempers背后的匿名用户至少从去年12月开始就一直在鼓吹，当时他建议只允许申请者驾驶一辆写着MOTABILITY字样的丑陋的旧车。几周后，埃隆·马斯克分享了他关于儿童诱奸团伙的帖子，并成为另一场狡猾的社交媒体狂潮的滥觞。

The Motability story got picked up by various accounts including Politics UK, a popular X news source, and later by prominent users such as GB News’s deputy political editor, Tom Harwood, who even borrowed Max Tempers’ idea for a car of shame. With crushing inevitability, after the Daily Mail piece, the health secretary, Wes Streeting told GB News the story showed why the welfare system needed reform.

Motability的故事被各种账户转载，包括著名的X新闻来源Politics UK，后来又被一些知名用户转载，比如GB news的副政治编辑汤姆·哈伍德，他甚至借用了Max Tempers设计羞耻车的点子。在《每日邮报》的那篇报道之后，卫生大臣韦斯·斯特里廷无可避免地告诉GB news，这个故事说明了为什么福利制度需要改革。