Is applying for a blue badge really that difficult??

I did it on behalf of my mother in law last year. My husband got her to provide all the required medical info for me to include and a photo. Took me a wee while to get it all completed and submitted, and it then took a month or two if I recall correctly, but was approved no problem.

I did DF's renewal which was complicated by the fact that he had changed local authorities by moving next door to me. It was all done online. The southern (where I am) LA asked for all sorts of medical information BUT didn't ask if it was a renewal. In exasperation, I phoned them and asked why we needed all this information when he already had a badge, but it was about to expire. That was the "unlocking" moment. The lady asked me to photograph both sides of the badge and send them in - took 5 minutes. An email came a few minutes later saying it was approved and we needed to pay the £10. We did that immediately and the badge came less than a week later.

Now I am about to apply for AA. DF doesn't need a lot of help a lot of the time, but on bad days, he needs quite a bit. As others have said, it's a gateway benefit and will make applying for other things easier.

OP, when we wanted MiL to do things that she was being stubborn about, we used to ask my DF to write a letter to us telling us about some "hack" he had found. At the end he would always write "tell MiL about it - I wish I had known sooner". DF was at least a decade younger than MiL but she trusted him more than us. We would read the letter and she would go quiet and thoughtful then say "well I suppose if X thinks it's a good idea, I'll do it". I wish I'd thought of it sooner! Is there someone like that who your ILs might trust?

lol I’m a lot younger than 55!

(Although my mom found the process hard and did some ranting about it … it really wasn’t (same council)

Easy to do - I needed a letter from the dr who did it for free. £10 fee to apply.

Re not applying for Attendance Allowance, some elderly people are frightened that if anyone in “authority” finds out they have impairments then they’ll be deemed incapable of independent living and packed off to a care home!

Sometimes they just need a bit of reassurance that the AA people aren’t judging them and they certainly won’t be contacting social services or anything like that. It’s purely a question of do you qualify for extra money based on your various health needs, literally does your application form score enough points. No one will be inspecting bank accounts or booking them into nursing homes.

If you frame it that the government like to pay it because it’s (much!) cheaper than actually providing care they might agree to apply.

We applied for our(at the time) 92 year old mum 2 years ago, we also submitted for her 90 year old neighbour and to be honest both went through pretty easily. I don’t know when renewal will be - however I can’t see it being an issue at their ages.

Yes it's that difficult here. The form is ridiculously long and they want evidence. My parent needed to get a letter from the doctor (£50!) despite having the same issue as the last application, and the one before, when they accepted a copy of a prescription as evidence. This time it wasn't good enough. They are 86 and there's no way they'd have managed to do it on their own.

I've done my Dad's application for him and a couple of renewals, He would definitely have struggled with it himself as he's not tech savvy at all but it was easy enough one you've gathered all the paperwork together. The ID photo was taken on my mobile.

The last one did get kicked back to us for not having enough evidence (even though I'd sent the same stuff prior) so he got his medical records printed out at the GPs and I then scanned them and sent them over. He's never had an in person assessment (jinxing that for next time I suppose).

I also keep a pdf copy of the application so I can remember what I put when it comes around to the next renewal.

It's an absolute lifeline for him.

The Age UK people were just brilliant with helping my mum get the Attendance Allowance she needed - could you maybe sidestep the issue of who the person works for in explaining it to the in-laws?
The guy who came to us was pretty forthright because he was well used to independent-minded older people downplaying their incapacity. So if she gave a breezy ‘of course I can get out of bed by myself’ he would question if that was always the case, for example. That’s how I found out my mum sometimes took two hours to get herself out of bed in the mornings 😲. Without this guy the application would absolutely have been rejected- as it was, the allowance paid for a cleaner, an emergency ‘necklace’ alarm, a self-raising armchair, taxis and ultimately carers, which all ensured she could live by herself for longer - so much cheaper for society in the long run.

I applied for ine for my daughter. The first one was rejected-turns out that if you use the correct jargon, then u will be more successful. Someone from my daughters SEN school filled out certain parts of the form and it was accepted. She also has physiotherapy (via NHS) and she also did a covering letter via email. I also sent in the copy part of the prescription. I dont know if it's any different from children and adults, but it did say a GP letter wont be accepted, it would need to be a specialist. Im assuming your MIL will have had therapy of some type after her op? Im in Essex and its known to be tricky to get a badge here

Yes I remember that you needed to be very organised with scanned medical letters etc on pdf, knowing when to attach them etc.

Scotland here. My husband's cousin applied for it. She had attendance allowance. Had to go for a face to face assessment and she apparently just qualified. Here in Edinburgh you can't apply again for a year if you don't get it which would have been awful in her case as she was diagnosed a few weeks later with MND and is now housebound 8 months on. Her mobility deteriorated quickly so I think we would have had to fight to get her reassessed.
The council do write to the GP. I had a call about a patient once as they were a bit dubious about his claim and it was clear this person didn't need a badge.

What is wrong with some elderly people. I got one for my late Mum who was fine with it as long as she didnt need to fill in any forms! Its not always for their benefit and a lot of older people become very selfish and stubborn. They never see anyone elses point of view.

Rant over!

Definite photo on card in England with name
Plus a seperate paper clock

Whatever the reason, you definitely need one now for a standard application.

Im in Scotland but the picture is definitely printed on the badge

It is not printed on the blue badge itself though, more for id.

My father died last year and had had his Blue Badge for 2/3 years - definitely post Covid. and there certainly wasn't a photo. In Wales if that makes any difference.

No

Was his reason for the BB terminal illness? They don’t usually need a picture under special rules/

You have to upload a recent photo.

My DF didn't have a picture

If their hospital parking is anything like ours (a nightmare) sometimes the only spaces are the disabled ones so it's massively helpful!

We found it very straightforward (copd so couldn't walk far) and it was awarded pretty quickly

I know this attitude only too well, but tell them its for over 55s. It normally puts a stop to it because people are shocked that it starts that young.