Why do people question blue badge holders?

[TeenLifeMum]

I’ve seen comments over the years about people being challenged for not looking disabled. But they’re not easy to get - in fact they seem ridiculously challenging and dad might be dead by the time he bloody gets one. Medical records and consultant’s letter isn’t enough, he needs an interview… but they keep arranging the interview for when he’s having cancer treatment (every day so I appreciate it’s hard to schedule).

Just needed to vent.

You applied on line and all you ticked was “yes I need a blue badge”

you provided zero evidence, correct? Zero evidence that you are presumably in receipt of fairly high rate disability benefits?

Indeed

as per the attached requirements

so in answer to you question @Imdunfer , yes I suppose I am!

Clear as day

evidence needed

Correct. I filled in an online form where I described my bad days, stated my diagnosis and uploaded a mugshot. That was accepted and I paid £10. I received an email saying my application was approved and my badge arrived in the post 10 days later.

It must be costing tens of thousands for the checking and interviewing that other councils are doing. I can only assume that my own has decided that the money is better spent elsewhere than trying to stop a few blaggers from parking where they shouldn't.

I am not in receipt of any disability benefits. I'm retired and I don't need them and the last time I looked retired people can't make a new disability benefit claim anyway.

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Have you seen the above screen shot

That is on the gov.uk website for applying online for a blue badge

somehow you managed to circumvent this requirement?

https://www.gov.uk/apply-blue-badge

Quite clearly, evidence required.

I followed the procedure used by my own council. Again, are you accusing me of lying?
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I wouldn’t challenge someone unless they didn’t have a blue badge. That said, my friend works for Arnold Clark Motorbility and an elderly man came in by taxi for an appointment about choosing his next Motorbility car and was quite confused when she asked him about his Volkwagon Golf to be returned. He said he hasn’t driven in years and doesn’t have a car. She got very worried and described the car he’d had for the past so many years and he said, “Oh no, my daughter has one of those. I remember we picked it up here years ago, but she lives in Ipswich”.

We were in Scotland.

I answered

I guess I am

I don't think you've read through that site and its eligibility pages yourself.

As. Clear. As. Day.

You didn’t neee to provide a CT bill? Passport?

literally said you need one and sent in a mugshot

correct?

You'll accuse me of being a liar and yet you don’t ask which Council this is? I'm actually reluctant to say, because I don't want all the blaggers in the county to go getting badges that will let them park on double yellows.

Having read the difficulties other people have described above in getting a badge, I'd rather a few blaggers in my area got them when they don't need them than that people who genuinely need them are left to suffer for months or even die without them.

I don’t ask you the council

because the government stipulates the evidence required. No where does it say… evidence set by each council. It simply states the evidence required.

go on then… what council?

So you applied online
you didn’t provide a any form of id nor a CT bill
you said you had a condition that needed a blue badge. But because not in receipt of any disability benefit, they just had to take you at your word?

Please don't be ridiculous. Of course I proved who I was. But I don't get any disability benefits and I did not have to prove the statements that I made about my mobility issues and as far as I'm aware no check was even made with my GP that I do have the disease which I claimed for. I believe the speed with which it was agreed made that impossible, it seemed to be a wholly automated process.
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Just been on my councils website

and the evidence required is identical to that stipulated by the government as above screen shot

How long ago were you able to simply say

I need a blue badge because I have this ailment

send in a photo

and hey presto…. You have a blue badge

I am only disabled some days and not others, I just filled it in for the days I can't walk or get out of the car without the door setting to is fullest open. Nobody checked with my doctor or even spoke to me.

how long ago?

My niece is disabled. My sister took us (my kids plus her DD, who was not able to skate) to an outdoor skating rink a couple years ago and the disabled spots were full of work vans so she dropped us and had to park on a lower lever (requiring a steep slope to climb back up). I complained to the staff. They didn’t seemed much interested but when we left an hour and a bit later they were all gone. Why they did that in the first place though!
My sister is very strict about only using a disabled parking spot if she has her DD with her, and FYI a foreign disabled badge is respected on the continent too which helped us out a couple times.

It doesn't, actually. The goverment stipulates the conditions under which you can claim a blue badge, which are very much more comprehensive than you seem to believe and do not need to include being in receipt of disability benefits.

It is then up to each council how they chose to obtain that information and check its accuracy, and mine obviously chooses not to spend tens of thousands of pounds doing face to face interviews and checking up on people simply to weed out a few bad apples.

I've had my badge 2 months. And now if you'll excuse me I'm tired of talking to someone who is repeatedly accusing me of lying.
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Those in supermarket car parks are a sop to planners, nothing more. No supermarket seems to have any intention of enforcement.

Perhaps having three years of an industrial scale liar as Prime Minister and people who exaggerate issues helps create a culture where the presumption by many is that someone is lying.

You don’t need to reveal your council

but why don’t you screenshot the specific council you applied through and what it says about evidence required

this council is openly and starkly going against the evidence required set by the government (as per my screenshot!)

Yes and if caught, a big fine!

If they have a badge, then no challenge needed.