The boss of the controversial Motability scheme that hands luxury cars to benefit claimants has pocketed a bumper £924,000 pay packet – as the company raked in £3billion from taxpayers.
Andrew Millar saw his salary soar after being handed a £300,000 bonus and a nine per cent pay rise which pushed his base salary to just over half a million a year.
The fat cat chief executive also enjoyed a £21,000 car allowance and private medical care, perks funded in part by a scheme that lets people on benefits claim BMWs and Audis at no cost to themselves.
Mr Millar, who previously worked as an executive at the left-wing Guardian newspaper, has seen his pay rocket since taking the top job at Motability in 2021.
He raked in £748,000 last year before this year’s bumper increase, a pay rise that has sparked fury as hard-working taxpayers foot the bill for disability claimants to drive brand new luxury motors.
The scheme has triggered nationwide outrage, with critics slamming it for allowing benefit claimants to access expensive new car models while working families struggle with the cost of living.
Last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she would clamp down on the excesses of the scheme after mounting pressure over claimants driving top-of-the-range BMWs and Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
Motability itself was forced to pledge it would stop claimants accessing high-end cars and encourage the use of more British-made models instead.
But Mr Millar’s massive pay rise shows the gravy train continues for bosses running taxpayer-funded schemes, even as ministers claim to be tightening the purse strings.
The company’s accounts show its revenues climbed by 4.1 per cent to a staggering £7.2billion, with a 23.5 per cent increase from people renting vehicles alone.
An astonishing 890,000 people across the UK now use the scheme, meaning one in every five new cars sold in Britain are Motability vehicles paid for by the taxpayer.
Motability defended the massive pay rise to the Daily Telegraph, claiming it reflected increased « complexity » in running the scheme.
Mr Millar previously ran the Guardian Media Group (GMG), which owned Autotrader at the time. He served as GMG’s chief financial officer before becoming chief executive from 2010 to 2015.
He currently also sits as a non-executive director at Channel 4.
The fat cat pay packet comes as new forecasts show one in eight people in the United Kingdom will be claiming disability benefits by the end of the decade.
Government figures now expect 8.7million Britons will be claiming welfare linked to a disability by 2030, piling further pressure on taxpayers.
Motability was set up as a charity in 1977, but today it is owned jointly by a consortium of banks, including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest.
The company still runs as a not-for-profit and lenders do not take dividends, yet Mr Millar enjoys a near-£1million pay packet.
He is one of several fat cat chief executives at groups that derive huge revenues from the taxpayer.
Mark Wild, HS2 chief executive, is paid £600,000 a year to run the over-budget railway project.
Anthony Kirby, chief executive of major prisons outsourcer Serco, gets £845,000, while Capita – which helps collect the BBC licence fee – hands its chief executive Adolfo Hernandez £700,000 in salary.
Critics have long argued that bosses running taxpayer-funded schemes should not be paid private sector salaries when their revenues come from the public purse.
The Motability scheme allows disabled people on certain benefits to use their mobility allowance to lease a new car every three years.
While supporters argue it provides vital independence for disabled people, critics say the scheme has become bloated and allows access to luxury vehicles that ordinary taxpayers cannot afford.
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