Hawking hits out at scooter tax

Professor Stephen Hawking has hit out at the 10 per cent tax on mobility scooters

Professor Stephen Hawking hit out at what he calls a "disgraceful" tax on the disabled.

The world-famous physicist is one of the world's longest-surviving motor neurone disease victims and has been wheelchair-bound for decades.

He relies on a "mobility scooter" to get about and wants an EU meeting later this week to drop a 10% import tax on the vehicles.

But the tax is almost certain to stay in place, and he commented: "For many of us with disabilities, a mobility scooter is literally a lifeline - without it we are locked out further from the world around us. To tax the most disadvantaged in society in this way is simply disgraceful."

A decision will be made by the EU's Customs Code Committee which meets on Wednesday to consider a European Commission proposal to maintain the current regime.

That means mobility scooters will continue to be classified as "motor vehicles for the transport of persons" which attract a 10% import duty, rather than as "carriages for disabled persons", such as conventional wheel-chairs, which are duty-free.

If the rules remain unchanged the EU will be following global practice, although in the UK some types of mobility scooter - a term which includes golf buggies - are exempt from the tax if sold to disabled people directly or through charities.

The UK Government representative at the Customs Code Committee is expected to support the mobility scooter tax in this week's vote, and a Government spokesman said: "The World Customs Organisation sets the rules relating to duty classification on mobility scooters, which the EU follows, and these rules have been in place since 2002."

But he added: "We continue to support disabled or seriously-ill people in a number of ways, including providing VAT exemptions on a number of goods and services they need."

Grant-giving charity Elizabeth Finn Care, along with The Mobility Bureau, said more than 25,000 mobility scooters are bought each year by charities and individuals in there UK alone - giving the Government a potential tax take of more than £6 million.