Just because you're old DOESNT entitle you to park in a Disabled space...

[Brewbees]

I'm seething at this, have been noticing it the last month or so. It's the same at supermarkets, doctors, hospital, dentist. I see old(er) people with no chair, frame, stick get out of their car and walk at full speed into said place. Meanwhile there are disabled people, including old(er) disabled people, who cannot get a spot to park and are left hanging on for someone to leave.

NOTE: I'm not being ageist - old(er) disabled people should be parking in disabled bays, just not able-bodied.

AIBU to think non-disabled, including old(er) people have no right parking in these bays and therefore making life more difficult for people who genuinely need these spaces?

My friend is 'older' and could be the person OP saw. Because she needs the car as close as possible to the places, because she can no longer physically pick up her son and wrangle him over distance after his respite/classes/therapies as he is over 6ft.

But on her way in to get him, the unkind think she's taking the piss.

Pity they're not there when she leaves with him, because then they might engage brain in future before making snide comments and judgy looks.

Just when you thought there had been every possible angle from the parking police you get another.

We need a topic.

I had an older woman do an amazing impression of Ussain Bolt as she sprinted across the car park to tell me off for taking the last BB spot. When I’d got out of the car she saw I can hardly move and can5 walk without 2 crutches. The silly bint had put the BB she was using facing with the photo upwards so i could see it wasn’t her’s. She got sent off with her tail between her legs.

I’ve had a BB for almost 20 years. The vast majority of the abuse I’ve had has come from older people.

My dh has a blue badge . He is 81 but he has the badge because of bad neuropathy in his feet caused by diabetes. When I am out without him I never use disabled spaces even though the badge is in the car. I know how difficult it is for the disabled if they have to park away from a shop or other venue.

I've never been challenged even when ds who is the bb holder is not with me ( dropped him off somewhere so legit). I must have a face that tells them they will be told to piss off.

My friend has a blue badge

Sometimes she can get out to the shops and walk into the supermarket and sometimes this is her first trip out for a few weeks as she is unable to move and has been sleeping downstairs

I was hanging around next to a car park a few months ago and a young couple (one of whom had a cane) came over and stood near me talking about the man who yelled at them for parking with a badge in a blue badge space. They were joined about five minutes later with by their parents (one of whom again had a cane and was walking very slowly) who said 'did that man yell at you as well for parking there' i was

I can move pretty swiftly when I have shit running down the inside of my leg, which of course you can't see.

All this about needing Pip to get a blue badge is rubbish.

I've had a blue badge for 10 years and wasn't claiming anything. I only started claiming Pip this year.

Not all disabilities are visible.

Not all disabilities are visible.

Not all disabilities are visible.

I'm on full PIP award, support group ESA. I can't walk with sticks even though I struggle a lot because my main disability is arthritis- I physically can't hold a stick! Today for example I cant bend my left hand enough to hold even something large, I can get my right hand most of the way but if I put anything in it I drop. And cry. It's very painful, but looking at my hands you wouldn't know any of this.

I don't have my own car so I can't afford my own blue badge so if someone takes me out in a car they can't park in disabled, they have to stop the car, come round and help me out as I can't undo doors or belts, help me lean somewhere while they park then lead me round for a few mins before I get too tired and painful to stand then repeat in reverse. And I'm in my early 30s.

Oh and today I'm leaving the house for the first time in almost 3 months, going to be rough but you wouldn't know it for looking at me. I try and hide how much pain I'm in.

Happens so much at the MacDonalds near where I work. I walk past (often through) the car park on my walk to the office. So many ca s with no blue badge parking in the disabled bays.

Realised I said something out loud one day as a woman was parking up, the driver heard me. When I said she probably wasn’t disabled I was sworn at. CF’s the lot of them.

I don't think this is an "old people bashing" thread. It's a thread about misperceptions of who should be entitled to park in disabled bays. Being old (and don't we all draw a different line as to what counts as old?) doesn't mean you need a badge, and by the same token, not being old doesn't mean you don't. The other week I saw a fit-looking man who can't have been over 35 being challenged for using a badge. "I have one leg," he replied simply. Which, as he climbed out of the car, proved to be true.

Annie has highlighted something I've noticed at our local gym recently - some amazingly fit and healthy looking young men (ex servicemen) who work out regularly but have lost one or more limb. The fact that they are making the best of it and continuing to exercise as they did before they were injured doesn't mean they don't need their blue badges.

Incidentally I wish more places did elderly parking. My DM is physically pretty fit but is increasingly anxious and confused as she enters her 80s. Being able to park closer to our destinations would shorten her time outside and make taking her to the shops/clinics etc less stressful and upsetting for her (and for me)

I get so sick of the grief I get when using a disabled space. I have had a blue badge for a fair few years now, but because I’m in my early 30s, look completely fine, and have a 5yo, people think I’m taking the piss. And don’t get me started on disabled toilets!!

Do you know how fucking hard it is, and how much practise it takes, to present yourself like you’re not in pain all the bastard time?!

Stop judging people. And if you must do, keep it to yourself.

'But you don't LOOK disabled!'

'Well you don't look stupid and yet here we are having this conversation'

I am late 40's and have a blue badge. My disability is invisible. I would love someone to challenge me on my rights to park in a disabled bay. Or a Parent and Child bay which I use if the disabled bays are full.

I give two shits what anyone else thinks. Want my parking badge? Fine, have my disability and pain with it.

My dad can barely walk 50 feet without falling over and needing a rest (heart failure and dementia). Can we get a blue badge for him? No we cannot. If he's with me I park as close to where we are going as possible. He doesn't get out much as it is.

I don't suppose someone could link to where support can be gained for applications for pip? Please?
I've arthritis in my spine, was at Drs last night crying in pain (back spasms) and said to her, my back is knackered. She was nice enough to reassure me, but when she opened my MRI results her face dropped. My discs are all bulging, I've arthritis and sciatica- plus now these spasms.
I can't walk without crutches, my leg tends to collapse under me (sciatica related) and am in constant pain. And yet, I'm 30. I've a lifetime of this to look forward to now.

Sorry to detract op

Just to reiterate even though j think this has been said a million times before.

P & C spaces are not a legal requirement and any one can park in them.

Not all disabilities are visible.
Absolutely, but unfortunately, it can't be denied that some people are abusing the system. Sadly, it is the case for one member of my family. They are obese, had two knee replacements and has claimed that they can't walk whatever distance that entitles them to a blue badge. I know for a fact that they are capable of walking a mile, as they did not long ago when I offered to take them home and they said that they were fine walking and it would do them good.

The thing that gets to be most is the attitude that comes with it that not only it means they get to benefit from all the disabled parking, but to park on yellow lines. Now this is something I just can't understand. If it's been deem by the Highway Agency that parking there was a hazard hence justifying yellow lines, then why isn't it dangerous if it's a disabled person parking there?

Surely it's either a case of not being dangerous, in which case, they should allow people to park hence giving none disabled people more space, or it's too dangerous for everyone.

For a lot of people, the difficulty is actually getting out of the car rather than the walking per se. When I fucked my back, I couldn't have got out of a car tightly wedged into a space in a typical crowded car park. I needed the car door wide open to exit the car.

That's got to be true of a lot of people, given that bad backs are very prevalent.

You can get a blue badge without DLA / PIP so if you feel you need one and have been turned down for DLA or PI, speak to your GP and ask if they will write a letter I support of your blue badge application.

YANBU

I've been out before with MIL and FIL (both bb holders) and there was a man sat in a car in the last disabled space saying he was waiting for someone elderly. Neither him nor the other man had a bb.

Cancerisacunt This is the same at one local supermarket to me. The disabled bays are across a road whilst the parent & child are bang next to the store with no road to cross. When on my own (not very often) I have parked in these because manually wheeling a wheelchair across an inclined busy road is a bloody nightmare.

This thread isn't meant to be goady, I retracted the age comment soon after my OP (although I stand by seeing lots of older people giving a shout); I also mentioned about invisible disabilities, on which I have several that severely impact my life.

This thread was intended to be more about anyone who abuse disabled bays. I love the "on,y be five or ten minutes so it's fine" crowd (then they take half hour and I'm left sitting there twiddling my thumbs), so incredibly annoying and unbelievably frustrating, all because they don't want to walk a handful of minutes instead.

Not all disabilities are visible.
Absolutely, but unfortunately, it can't be denied that some people are abusing the system.

The worst story I heard was about a guy who claims HRM but still does a job for which he uses a van(self employed).

His wife uses his BMW Motability Vehicle for her own personal use and uses it for work everyday.

No wonder people get really pee'd off when there's people openly abusing the system.