to think that an increasing number of people with disabilities

[Unwind]

is the elephant in the room

articles like this one:

www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/borisjohnson/8321899/The-blue-badge-of-the-disabled-fails-those-who-need-it-most.html

Seem to assume that more blue badges etc are being given out because benefits are being extended more widely, without considering whether there are simply increasing numbers of people who qualify.

One of the realities of medical advances is that people are surviving who otherwise might not have. That means more in need of support. So to keep the same level of benefits going, we need to keep allocating more resources to those most in need.

I agree Glitterknickaz, the Daily Mail in particular has almost daily articles demonising disabled people. Seems we damned if we do and damned if we don't.

So when there's an article moaning about how much benefits are given to disabled people etc there are thousands of 'I'm sure most disabled people could do some work' type comments. Then you get an article about mobility scooters or someone who had an awesome wheelchair with tank style runners who was told he needed a licence to use it and you get thousands of 'I see loads of people using these, they're a menace, mobility scooters should be banned, they slow normal people down going to work etc' comments. So when people with disabilities try to get out (possibly to work!) and about they're devils for using mobility aids, but when they don't work they're bloody scroungers.

And when you get the articles about people with disabilities doing a job or trying to learn new skills (like that chef with dyslexia who a hotel tried to pin the blame on for out of date food being served, or the man with tourettes who works as a registrar, people with dyspraxia needing special help to learn to drive, a man with a missing limb who crashed a specially adapted car (because car crashes are so rare!) you get the outraged comments about 'I don't think these disabled people should be working/driving - they're not safe'

And of course every time someone sues for discrimination of any kind 'the world's gone PC mad, employers should be able to hire who they want'. But apparently employers love to hire people with disabilities and it's not harder for someone with a disability to get and keep a job...

Blue badges are odd: if you get one through DLA you have hoops, councils OTOH vary- in england where we were they were easy to obtain; here in Wales they only acknowledge physical disability such as needing a wheelchair at present (under review, autism etc expected to be included at some stage).

It's not just the ageing population either- we can care for babies born early and keep them alive with an increased risk of disability (and hallelujah to that); other disabilities are on the rise such as ASD and there are all sorts of theories about that.
None involve wild over diagnosis btw (!).

The sensible thing to do is to enable people who can to work but pulling funding left right and centre then sending in ATOS will ahve the complete opposite effect, except when it becomes impossible to qualify as officially disabled for benefits we will simply all bemoan the feckless unemployed, not realising a substantial proportion ahve just been thrown off disability incomes or denied the support to get an education earlier on.

My lovely hard working 33 year old BIl was made redundant last week, in a small town along with hundreds of others. I do not know if he will ever get work again- his sick record is appalling due to a condition they thought was terminal but was surgically resolved. Having filled in a tick box reference request yesterday for someone, there's no way he would ever be hired. There's no box for 'now cured', only absences over X and Y.

There's a sign up at our shopping centre BTW warning the disabled users about people approaching them to take their blue badge with menaces, for teh purposes of selling on.

Seems a police presence there migth go some way?

85% of adults with Autism are unemployed.
A good number of those must be high functioning, makes sense given the massive size of the spectrum.

A good number are unemployed because employers simply don't want them. So how is their unemployed status their fault?

Oh and was anyone else aware that the scheme the government intend to replace DLA once it's abolished will penalise people who have aids and adaptations? So if you have wheelchairs, walking frames etc you will get less money?

Because of course giving aids and adaptations to a disabled person completely removes the disability, no?

Very strange that apart from in the Guardian the media as a whole are just belching out this tripe demonising the disabled when actually a large number of disabled people and their carers are facing POVERTY if they lose their DLA. DLA is a gateway to Carers Allowance, and in turn that is a gateway to Income Support.

If my children were to lose DLA then we'd lose the carers allowance, income support, housing benefit, council tax benefit. Their disabilities wouldn't go away, we still wouldn't be able to work and have to care for them yet have no way of getting money. What are we supposed to do? Live in a shop doorway in a cardboard box?

Apologies if this seems off topic, but in reality it isn't. I truly believe this is a government agenda on the very week that the consultation into the abolition of DLA closes. The public as a whole are completely ignorant of the real issue behind all these news stories.

As for blue badge fraud, yes I believe it exists. I don't mind paying more for forgery resistant badges but I do believe the mobility testing idea is fundamentally flawed for the reasons in my above post. There is far too much generalisation in government proposals for disability. The disabled are not one homogeneous group, disabilities by their very nature are diverse.

The government is in danger of putting the most vulnerable in society at risk of poverty and real harm. Nobody realises this.

I knew that Glttaz but then you have me on FB .

It's not just aid or adaptations either; there's a potential suggestion that will cause people to have to choose between educational support or home income by couting one against the other: lack of educational opportunity will hardly improve employment rates for the disabled population, but OTOH I seriously doubt the school will be repalcing my damaged furniture or providing me with a car to access the SN provision that is some miles away from any bus route........

it's a tricky one tbh.

I am entitled to a blue badge. And my overwhelming response to that fact is "why?"

I walk everywhere. to/from school/the shops/am about to go and do a hopefully two mile run on the treadmill... And yet somewhere it has been decided that by virtue of the fact I have a disability I should be able to park my car (well the car of the person driving me) within easy distance of the shops/anywhere else where blue badges are permitted.

I think that we do need to get past this notion that purely because someone has a disability we should not question it, in any way shape or form, and that if someone says they are "entitled" to something by virtue of their disability, it is not for anyone else to question.

That's not to say that there aren't invisible disabilities where a blue badge is warranted. But equally it's not wrong to question whether someone actually needs a blue badge.

Maybe if blue badges weren't issued purely on the basis of disability people wouldn't have this attitude.

Fwiw I don't have one, even though I could have, as much as my parents would love the free parking.

I don't believe they are issued purely on the basis of disability, well certainly not by my local authority.

The report of a consultant stating as I have that yes my son can travel a fair distance, but not safely and not without significant pain and immobility at a later time was required.

It's not done by diagnosis, same with Dla - being diagnosed with a disability doesn't guarantee you benefits or a blue badge, it depends on how the disability affects you. For example I could try to get lower rate care DLA as I can't cook a meal for myself by scratch. I catch myself on fire, cut myself with knives and peelers etc. Some days I don't have the energy to cook and live off crisps until DP gets home and can make me something to eat. Other people with Fibromyalgia I know get middle rate care as they need assistance with washing etc. I am able to bath myself on most days safely. Sometimes I can shower. If I'm having a bad day for feeling faint and dizzy I won't bath or shower unless my DP is in the building too. Someone who had the same condition but was able to cook etc for themselves can't get DLA just because of the diagnosis - you have to prove your individual condition is disabling.

The adaptions thing is frightening. I know someone who gets HRC Dla but no mobility as she apparently has no mobility needs. She is a wheelchair user. She needs the DLA to pay for the wheelchair and other aids.

My father has a BB, he was awarded it in '06. He tried for about 5 years before that unsuccessfully to get it. He doesn't get any disability benefits and lives off his pension. The BB is very useful to us, it makes shopping easier for him as he has osteoarthritis, easier for Mum she also has arthritis and fibromyalgia. They wanted it to be able to park nearer the shop entrances, not for free parking.

Well, an example would be a tenant saying that they couldn't walk more than 10 meters unaided, then me spotting them running around playing footie in the park with their son... They had disability living allowance and blue badge. What I said, this is not directed at people with genuine disabilities, just people looking for excuses not to work and claim all they can!

In that case I have no idea how they got DLA as the amount of evidence required is substantial. For DS2's renewal I provided reports from the paediatrician, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, speech and language therapist and provided full GP details for confirmation. They then asked for a report from the school. Still don't have a response to the application by the way. DLA has a fraud rate of 0.5% and you don't just get it on the basis of your application.

Maybe the increase in blue badge numbers is because more disabled people can afford a car. If so, I'm sure the proposed cuts in benefits will soon sort that out .

The BB scheme is for the person not the vehicle, so the increased numbers has no bearing on being able to afford the car. They can be used in any vehicle as long as the person who needs it is in the vehicle.

People are living longer and surviving conditions which previously would have killed them. Babies are surviving at earlier levels of prematurity which can lead to disabilities. I don't understand why that concept isn't understood

Plus I suppose the disabled are daring to go out in public, not staying hidden away in institutions...

I could have had a blue badge for my son when he was unwell with Leukaemia. I didn't apply for the DLA which I was entitled to either. My son didn't need a blue badge he was 3 when he was diagnosed and 6 when he finished treatment. It would have made parking at the hospital easier but a temporary pass would have solved that problem. Had he been older and in a large wheelchair I would have probably applied for DLA just to get the blue badge.

There has to be a more efficient way than the blue badge system.

The blue badge system managed well is efficient but there is where the issue lies.

Absolutely nobody should have to apply for DLA to get a badge alone (and Yay about your son- my cousin died aged 5 from leukaemia, her dad helped set up an excellent service but went under mentally and has never recovered. At her funeral my other cousin (not sibling to the deceased) was told he ahd a fortnight left also from leukaemia aged 4; he is now 36 and has 5 children- we never cease to be both thankful and amazed). There should also IMO be more flexibility- I have 2 chidlren on LR mobility with ASD; it seems obvious to me that the adding together of them when out should equate a blue badge but there is no system in place for that. Even if ASD was a qualifying disability here.

From what I can work out the issue with the badges as with Incapacity benefit as was came down to people being able to access it with a signature from a GP; I don't advocate ATOS at all, but it should not be hard for someone in real need to be able to present evidence as well as having it signed off by a med prof; hospital appts, statements for children- the same documents one would present to the DLA people.

Wheelchair users need wide parking spaces but don't necessarily need spaces to be right by the door. There are others who have disabilities that mean they need to be as close as possible to the door but they don't necessarily need extra wide spaces.

Would - in supermarket carparks and shopping centres- it help to have some additional wide blue badge only spaces further from the entrance?

"Well, an example would be a tenant saying that they couldn't walk more than 10 meters unaided, then me spotting them running around playing footie in the park with their son... They had disability living allowance and blue badge. What I said, this is not directed at people with genuine disabilities, just people looking for excuses not to work and claim all they can!"

I am not sure what her disability is, but there are many conditions which might mean you are unable to walk 10 metres unaided some of the time, but able to run around on good days.

Again - this would have been true of my terminally ill FIL. I actually think he abused his blue badge by using it to get free parking and on days when he was well enough to walk long distances. But the course of his illness was not predictable, and there were times when he would have been housebound without it. He also couldn't be sure that he would not need his car close by e.g. on leaving the supermarket.

True of a LOT of conditions- and whilst there are cheats of course there are (Government estimates 0.5%: contrast that with a planned cut to DLA of 20% for a moment...) there is also your diagnoses of MS, fybromyalgia, anything needing short bursts of intensive disabling treatment, plsu another large amount of synbdromes where youa re told to keep exercising and ignore the pain. And another batch of people who hide the agony rather than have their child see.

Of course this person might be a cheat; but you couldn't say for sure from that. DS1 will go into town 9 times with only mild issues, on the tenth time he might push a sibling under a car (or try anyway), punch me or similar, possibly needing to be carried back to the car at age 11 (ASD). Now we don't have a badge but if we did, those nine times wouldn't make us chaters as long as the tenth time did happen.

I don't see many people abusing the blue badge spaces but while I was parked at Tesco at the weekend I did note two or three cars parking here:

i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01711/parent-child-parki_1711346c.jpg

which men on their own in their 60s got out of. Perhaps they think one of the figures is meant to represent a man wearing a brown anorak and slacks.

THere's no question that the Blue Badge system needs reviewing. My FIL, who still goes for 30 minute dog walks twice a day, has one. He has a bad hip and is a bit chesty, but that's the extent of his disability. In addition to dog walking he is a keen gardener and is usually pottering around outside.
My FIL admits he doesn't really need his Blue Badge, but the criteria are much more relaxed up in the Highlands. Just being 'old' is enough.

Meanwhile, my disabled father had to jump through hoops (ha) to get his from a London borough.

And indeed where we are in Wales Abr1de ASD is not enough as a criteria- it really is variable.

But that's down to decentralisation surely? It's the Assembly that makes the rules here IIRC.

Yes, in some ways decentralisation is the issue.

Do they not still do orange badges?

Interesting that one of the first 'solutions' thought of is 'test, restrict, interrogate and deny' the disabled person, and that the 'problem' is defined equally in terms of the problem for able-bodied car drivers as for disabled people.

And Boris's argument fails to recognise one of the main needs for a Blue badge: the difficulty in using public transport with many conditions. So, because I cannot take DS on public transport when he has his leg in a tower of steel, to take him to a museum in Central London would cost us maybe £20 in parking charges in some central London areas - and the BB offers a solution to that level of financial discrimination: most of our BB parking when he is unable to walk is in pay and siplay bays, but which are free because of the BB. Actually, Westminster only allows one free hour - other hours have to be paid fo and it is very very expensive, even with a BB. Because of paking charges and congestyion, there is no way I take the car into central London except when DS is incapacititated.

They could tackle the fraudulent use: it would be EASY to enable traffic wardens to be able to key in the serial number of a BB into that little gadget they have and check whether it is the badge of a dead person, or reported stolen. Replacement Badges should be given new serial numbers and the old onc cancelled. The bloody drivers without BBs who 'hover' in disabled spaces with engines on waiting for someone in a shop could be 'done' - because it is v hard when you are the BB holder cruising for a space to see who is occupying the space legitimatley.

However, "There is talk of new independent medical tests, after auditors revealed a few years ago that about 16,000 blue-badge holders were shamelessly using the entitlements of dead relatives" is a great us of resources .

Fraudulent and stolen badges are a very bad problem for genuine users. Twice in the summer DS was unable to walk we were unable to go to the Lido at brockwell park because all the disabled spaces were either blocked in by non-badge holders (oh, yes, people are stupid enough to park across the space) or because several members of the football team plonk badges in their window and then sprint onto the football pitch...
A stolen BB fetches £600 in S London.