The Motability Foundation has seen its total reserves rise by 5% to £1.78bn as its charitable expenditure rose by 43% to “its highest ever level” of £113m, according to recently filed accounts.
Accounts for the year ending 31 March 2023 show that the disability charity spent £113m on charitable activities last year, compared with £78.8m the previous year, while its overall costs rose to £129m.
The charity’s total income increased by £56.7m to £240m, thanks to a donation of £200m from Motability Operations, a commercial company contracted by the charity to run the Motability scheme.
In August, Motability Foundation – then known as Motability, the charity – announced that it was rebranding and changing its name to better reflect “the wide range of activities” it undertakes.
A spokesperson for the charity told Civil Society that the investment in the brand refresh was funded “within our operating budget for raising awareness and engagement”.
£200m donation from Motability Operations
The charity recorded a total income of £240m, up from £184m in 2021-22, following a £200m donation from Motability Operations (2021-22: £170m) “combined with significantly higher investment income of £39.4m (2021-22: £12.9m) as interest rates rose and the endowment became fully invested”.
“At the operating level, the Motability Foundation recorded consolidated net income before investment gains and losses of £111m (2022: £97m), principally on the general fund,” the accounts read.
The accounts say that the donation from Motability Operations “secured the resources to deliver the largest three-year planning total for charitable expenditure in the Motability Foundation’s history at a time of exceptional need for our beneficiaries”.
Motability Operations donates any profits to Motability Foundation that are not required for reinvestment or retained as reserves, the accounts say.
MPs previously criticised the former chief executive of Motability Operations for holding some £2.4bn in reserve as a “financial shock absorber” and not donating more of its cash surplus to the charity.
In 2020-21, the company donated £852m to Motability Foundation, which it said was thanks to a record high in second-hand car prices in 2019.
Pay gaps
Motability Foundation employed an average of 246 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff last year, an increase of 21.8% on 2021-22 (202 FTE staff).
All staff salaries exceeded the voluntary UK Real Living Wage, its accounts say, with reductions in its gender and disability pay gaps.
In November 2022, the charity reported a gender pay gap of 15.5%, a disability pay gap for the same period of 13.7%, and an ethnicity pay gap of -7.4%.
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