Shocking stats that confirm Motability is out of control thanks to broken benefits system

It was my wife who first noticed the phenomenon. "There are a lot of brand new cars on the roads here," she remarked as we drove around Belfast during a visit to my native Northern Ireland last week. She was right. At times, the city's traffic was a parade of vehicular prestige, marked by lines of BMWs, Audis and Jaguars, all gleaming in the autumnal sun.

The explanation for this impressive display is not a sudden surge in regional prosperity, for the economy of Ulster still bears the scars of deindustrialisation and three decades of the Troubles. No, the answer lies in the notorious Motability scheme that has become a symbol of Britain's broken welfare system.

First established in 1977 with the best intentions, to provide State support for genuinely disabled people, Motability has turned into a vast engine of subsidised extravagance which enables an army of clients - Motability cars now count for one in five of all new vehicles sold in the UK - to acquire high-end motors on dubious medical grounds.

All sorts of conditions are now deployed for this purpose - including anxiety, depression, food intolerance, and even past drug addiction.

In no part of our kingdom is the scheme's lack of restraint or morality more ruthlessly exploited than in Northern Ireland where, incredibly, half of all new cars are bought through Motability. But even the more modest figure for England, where Motability accounts for a quarter of new car sales, still points to a disturbing level of welfare dependency and an eagerness to embrace the mantle of victimhood.

Jim Callaghan's government introduced the scheme to replace the rickety three-wheeled Invacar donated to the disabled after the war. People could choose a suitable vehicle, including any necessary adaptations, under a government car-leasing scheme. For 50 years it helped those with severe conditions such as cerebral palsy and Parkinson's.

But it wasn't until the increase in claimants post-Covid that the scheme ballooned. There are more than 160 models to choose from on the Motability website and, astonishingly, its chief executive Andrew Miller earned almost £750,000 last year. It's even been suggested the scheme is keeping many UK car dealerships afloat.

As my colleague Mieka Smiles wrote last week, claimants can apply for a new model every three years - something many families could only ever wish for - and perhaps the biggest boon is you don't even have to be the claimant yourself to benefit. Each vehicle comes with free road tax, RAC cover, servicing and MoT, tyre and windscreen repair, installation of a charge point for electric cars and insurance paid for three named drivers: family, friends or carers.

Yet such State beneficence is clearly fuelling the rapid expansion of the bloated benefits industry which has a vested interest in seeking to pathologise the human condition, in this case to get a nice new car every three years.

In a culture that celebrates enfeeblement and rewards helplessness, it's no surprise that the majority of sick leave in the workplace today stems from poor mental health, just as more than four million adults are on benefits because of mental illness.

Among young people, self-harm is rampant, affecting a quarter of young women and 10% of young men. Those statistics filled me with anger during my visit to Belfast, whose main purpose was to see my elder brother, stricken with cancer and living in a hospice.

He is putting up a heroic fight, battling stoically and stubbornly every day. His valour is matched by that of my younger brother who recently underwent major, life-changing surgery to combat the disease.

But there are plenty more who use real or imagined conditions, mental or physical, to milk the system and nowhere is that more apparent than Motability. And as ever, those who abuse taxpayers' generosity are making things more difficult for those in genuine need. As always, those who are abusing taxpayers' money are ruining it for those who have a genuine, desperate need for the service.

At some point a braver government than this will realise the tap must be turned off. By then Motability may be facing such a public backlash that those in genuine need will lose their access as much as the grifters. But by then it will be too late. And once again the potholed road to hell has been paved with good intentions, allowed to run out of control.