Disappointed that Longleat no longer accepts Blue Light Card.

[Dietcokeimonmyknees]

Longleat safari park no longer accept blue light card.. I’m so disappointed. They only accept emergency service ID now. I work in education and can’t only assume I no longer fit the bill 😒

Agree totally with the above. During lockdown, I had a neighbour who worked in an NHS admin role from home. As well as blue light card she got all kinds of other discounts, including half price day for NHS at somewhere like Sports Direct. Yet people working as refuse collectors or undertakers were never identified as "key workers". And yes I do have a blue light card myself but barely use it as too much faff and many companies no longer accept it, which is fine because businesses have to make money somehow and so many people seem to qualify these days.

I'm not surprised. It covers such a wide range of employees that loads of people have them now. Restaurants must take quite a hit when one customer with a blue light card applies it to the whole group. In my work, friend and family groups at least one person has the card and gets the discount.

What’s Blue Light about teachers? Since they opened it up to them it’s lost a lot of companies signed up.

Most of us are very grateful for what you did.

But at the same time as you were doing that, staff in other areas of the NHS were having a much easier time than normal. My eye checks were reduced and when I did attend instead of the outpatient department being rammed to the gunnels there were half a dozen people there and everything was very relaxed.

Those employees also get the blue light discounts in supermarkets where other people who are paid less than they are and who also worked right through covid don't get a discount.

So do the resident doctors who've now had 35% pay increases in less than 2 years.

It's 5 years ago now, it's time the discounts stopped, they are unfair.

I have a blue light card as a teacher, I don't really understand why I should get one, but then I don't really understand why any profession gets a discount to be honest.

It's saved me loads over the time I have had it though!

I think it's fine. I have a BLC and am an NHS frontline worker who works from home 99% of the time.

Not at all frontline workers are the same and not all NHS employees are the same but it's impossible to triage or assess discounts so they have to have a blanket policy.

Most of it stems from COVID when most of the public assumed frontline workers were in A and E putting their lives on the line and companies gave out vast discounts to everyone working for the NHS who were most likely not in those roles.

Same for the rest of us 🤷‍♀️

Yeah BLC shot themselves in the foot massively when they opened it up to anyone with an education or nhs email. It’s pretty crap now.

What's your definition of frontline?

I don't understand how you can work from home and describe yourself as a frontline NHS worker.

Can we assume you mean it's fine for Longleat to drop it, not that it's fine for you to get a discount in Tesco when people who are paid less than you in other jobs whose taxes pay your wages don't?

As a business the changes made to the blue light card and the amount of people that can now get the made it no longer viable to support.

The eligibility for the blue light card doesn't make any sense. An ad popped up on my Facebook feed the other day, saying that volunteers were now eligible. I manage a foodbank on minimum wage and I thought it would be a nice thing to tell my volunteers about, but neither myself nor the volunteers are eligible for a card. However a dentist working in a private practice, possibly earning a six figure salary could get one - how does that make sense?

thoughts n prayers

I think the Blue Light card days are numbered, especially as public sector workers on average earn more than private sector ones.

Longleat will have done some analysis as to whether offering the discount helps them sell more tickets and make more money overall. Blue light is just an affiliate marketing scheme like the many many other such schemes.

You’re ‘so disappointed’ about not getting a discount, at some imaginary time in the future, to visit a place you’ve not been to in years? Blimey, you must have a quiet life!

My definition of frontline is the definition of frontline. An employee who interacts directly with the rest of the workforce and the public. In modern life, that can be over the 'phone or over TEAMS. And in occasional situations, I do that in person in a hospital, Police station, prison and so on. I am by definition a frontline worker.

I'm not aware at all that I can receive any kind of discount in Tesco.

Not sure what your point is about taxpayers paying my wages, I am a taxpayer so am also paying my wages. Do you think I should pay less tax since i'm paying my own wages? There's an idea..

Blue light card is nothing to do with covid, it's been around since long before covid. It's simply a scheme for businesses to use to promote their business to blue light card holders by offering discounts. Longleat have obviously made a business decision that they are not making money by participating, so no longer offering the discount. You can either pay full price or go elsewhere.

The definition of frontline NHS staff that I know is dealing directly with patients relating directly to their health treatment, normally face to face but I guess stuff like mental health support via telephone counts as well.

Tesco take the blue light card for charging a card that can then be spent in Tesco, apparently.

Not sure what your point is about taxpayers paying my wages, I am a taxpayer so am also paying my wages. Do you think I should pay less tax since i'm paying my own wages? There's an idea..

The tax you pay from NHS pay is paid to you out of tax that has already been paid by the private sector. It does not add to the total amount available to the government to finance public services.

Your bottom paragraph is completely nonsensical.

Businesses can't give discounts to more and more people, as they poor sods who don't qualify end up paying more and more. Longleat can't offer Blue Light discounts AND universal credit discounts AND Tesco clubcard discounts AND xxxxxxx AND xxxxxxx or they'd end up with so few paying full price due to hiking the normal prices if would drive "normal" price payers away.

Surely blue light cards should be for those who work in the emergency services, the ones who have blue lights? So ambulance, fire men/women, police, A&E staff who deal directly with the ambulances?

BLC existed pre covid

DH has a blue light card. While what he does is amazing and he has had year on year of below inflation pay rises he does just go into the office each day. In fact we have very similar roles just different segments of the public sector so it never made sense why he got all these discounts and I didn't .

But at a much smaller scale. It's scope was broadened massively during Covid, and it was inevitable that businesses would start to scale back when it became so widespread and effectively no longer limited to "blue light" workers.

Exactly!
I worked in local government and although I was breaking myself due to work load pressures I never felt like I should get the discounts but I absolutely felt it was unjust that NHS office workers got them but our bin men and housing officers etc didn't. Their jobs were brutal in the pandemic¡