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.

Totally agree. And it'd mean the nosy nellies can go and complain to a traffic warden rather than turning into inquisitors themselves 😅

Traffic wardens are absolutely able to ask to see BB, and can confiscate them if they suspect misuse as well!

Yeah, they're welcome to my privilege of having a disability too. There's still time to get their own though, I didn't get mine until I wax 55.

i much preferred my life when I didn't qualify for a BB.

No, that doesn't work for disabled people who rely on different people to drive them places. Especially those who need the driver to accompany them & be with them at all times. It's no so bad for those who can be cropped off & wait while the driver parks elsewhere but still not great.

I've just aoied for one for my mum who is 87 and fit as a lop. I didn't need to provide any evidence at all

Good for you then, that you don't have the 'privilege', as yet. Speaking hypothetically about something that you have not actually experienced is not really the same thing though. Disabled people just trying to get on with whatever they have left home to do, are under no obligation to justify anything to nosy bystanders.

Family member has a blue badge. Only challenges I've had have been a very zealous parking attendant who saw us arrive and was tapping the window before I had a chance to get the badge out, and once from someone behind us in the car park who wanted the space for herself and came up to tell me it was a disabled space. I just said, I know and waved the blue badge at her.

You think it's ok that a random stranger with no medical training should challenge a disabled person?

They would have no means to clarify misuse. They don’t have access to the records.
or at least that’s what our town traffic warden told everyone at a meeting over this very subject.

But it is within their remit, that is what I was referring to. How they would be able to justify their actions, is another thing. I guess it would depend on whatever the person driving, answered, perhaps. But if anybody has any 'right' to ask about a BB, it is them, or the Police, not rando members of the public.

Because they're ignorant twats, and are jealous of our " privilege"
I have been known to reply" you can have mine, but you have to take my disability too
That shuts them up.

@Screamingabdabz
Spot the able bodied narrow minded poster
Everyone is entitled to privacy and dignity
I have Moderate Cerebral Palsy. Do you have any idea of my impairments?... Thought not

the kind of person that does this is just simply a weirdo with time on their hands

I have one and don't 'look' disabled and have never been challenged.
DH has a limp though and he drives so I don't know if that helps !

I've just applied and been successful. No assessment, no interview. Filled out the forms online and sent copies of consultant letters, medication etc. I was sure I was going to get declined but then I got an email to say its been successful and it's in the post. I was a bit shocked to be honest as I didn't think I would be eligible as I had heard they had really tightened up.

I'm nervous about using it though as I hate confrontation as it makes me anxious!

Agree, I see this so often in London, often two men unloading stuff from a van with a blue badge stuck in the windscreen. It makes people cynical.

They can't challenge whether the badge owner is disabled but they can query whether the person using the badge is using it correctly - I e the person named on the badge or someone parking up to collect them. Presumably they also have some training to tell whether a badge is fake.

Regardless of whether they are cynical, or not, it does not give people the right to question others, who are displaying a BB.

That is a good point actually. Traffic wardens should be more likely to be able to spot a doctored BB.

Every sympathy with people getting challenged by nosey interfering people.

However, sometimes it might be an attempt to protect BB spaces for people who need them.

As pp said BB fraud and misuse is rife and endemic in London. An authentic BB holder would not be able to park in our park / gym car park because every BB space is filled with cars used by people who leap out and lug their outdoor personal training equipment into the park, or unload a load of other people’s dogs that they are getting paid to walk. All plonking a forged or absent relative’s badge on the windscreen.

I have had a wheelchair using child and then v disabled Mum and I wish wish wish there was more official enforcement against the arrogant entitled chancers using BB spaces fraudulently. It caused us so much grief, circling for spaces, waiting for someone to ‘pop back to their car after only bring a couple of minutes’ in the space.

So people bring challenged isn’t always a bad thing. If the photo on the badge is the person in the car he nature of the disability is no one’s business…

Unless the police are having a sweep of badges used by drug dealers. Drug dealers love them as they can park on double yellows or in residents bays for the time they need and be on the move

So people bring challenged isn’t always a bad thing. If the photo on the badge is the person in the car he nature of the disability is no one’s business…

How would anybody know if the photo matches a person in the car, unless they are asked to show their badge? People who think that they are being well meaning, have zero right to ask anybody to show them the picture, or explain the BB being displayed. Only a traffic warden, or the Police have that authority.

It was straightforward to get my mum one - but her cancer diagnosis was terminal unfortunately, they don't hang around in that case. You wouldn't want to get terminal cancer just for the blue badge.

Also the oncology centre had free parking for cancer patients which was great.

Yes I see this been done frequently, especially at the school gates where parking is not allowed.

Iv never known anyone in real life be challenged the only time iv seen it is an account on tiktok where some bloke sits in his work van all day in a disabled space waiting to be approached then films it. Which is misusing it as you actually need to get out the car

People think that only wheelchair users or those with poor mobility should have a blue badge
My son gets one automatically, due to getting HRM DLA he gets it under severe mental impairment criteria he can walk for miles ,run ,jump, climb etc. but at 15 has the cognitive ability of a toddler, and has zero awareness of danger.