Questioned over use of Blue Badge

[SuperMeerkat]

Not sure if I’m being unreasonable here. I have epilepsy and it’s been really bad this year. 3 instances of Status (continual seizures) requiring emergency hospitalisation via ambulance plus many more seizures. My last seizure was 3 days ago. Anyway my husband parked up in a disabled bay with me as a passenger and I displayed the Blue Badge. A man immediately beckoned me over and demanded to know why I was using the disabled bay. I was very upset that I was made out to be using it fraudulently. AIBU to be upset or should I just get over it?

I don’t have a permit, but will probably will one day, as I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. I am also VERY familiar with the frustrations of trying to find a parking spot, as dad had MND, and mum had COPD. The number of times there would be some smartarse boy racer in a baseball cap sucking on an energy drink, or a grey-coloured obese buttcrack buying fags, I’d be thinking to myself, “You may not have a permit now, but I bet it won’t be too long before you do.”
Anyhow, I saw this protest and thought I’d share it with you.

sorry this happened to you OP

i love it when you can see that people are staring at you and wondering why i am parking in a disabled bay, until i put dd in her wheelchair - they soon manage to find something more interesting to look at then.

People are just rude sometimes.

My boyfriend has a BB, he had arthrogryposis (the same as Will from strictly this year), he needs the door fully open to get in/out of the car. I don’t drive very often (even less now some scrote has stolen my car), but we were at Sainsburys a few weeks ago in a disabled bay. Someone then marked on the cross markings next to us, they were so close I could only just get in the car. Luckily I could get in and move it, but if someone had been on their own in that situation they would have either had to wait for the car owner to come back, or ask around to see it anyone would be willing to back the car out enough for him to get in.

His balance is terrible so he has to sit down on the tube, the dirty looks he gets for asking for someone to give up their seat is awful. He can’t just stand as his balance is poor and he cannot grip bars etc enough to remain upright on a moving train/tube/bus. He’s been verbally abused on the tube before when I have been with him, he hates replying as when he has it had then often led to abuse about “foreigners coming on here and taking all our benefits”.

People who dislike BBs and have the audacity to complain about people using them really are scum.

I honestly think some moaners are surprised that disabled people are out of the house going to supermarkets you know the ordinary stuff that they are surprised that they look ok

I would have asked him what right he had to question me,and told him to mind his own bloody business. What a nerve!

These fuckwits need educating that it's blue badge parking or whomever has been given a blue badge, not just disabled parking.

Mrsjay I know exactly what you mean! A couple of years ago,I asked a woman behind me in a supermarket queue to stop shoving her trolley into the back of my legs. I said that I had enough problems with them already without someone adding to it (I am disabled with osteo and rheumatoid arthritis in numerous joints and use 2 walking sticks). Her response? 'Maybe you shouldn't leave the house then,if you can't cope''. I was and . Thankfully,I had my rottweiler daughter with me,who tore her off a strip. Some people's attitude towards disabled people stinks.

Jeez cheeky woman wtf was she on about disabled person doing their food shop shocker! Good for your Dd though.

“Brexit isn't going to cause the demise of the blue badge but nice try Serndiptyjane“ oh really you know that for a fact do you? Please do post a link proving that if so! Because as far as I’m aware there’s been ZERO clear assurances from anyone - certainly not the pm - that we disabled won’t lose the many areas of support we currently have thanks to being part of the eu.

Attitudes to disabled are getting worse, not better in my opinion/experience.

Dd also has a disability and as per pp (also Eds) will likely in the future be visibly disabled due to mobility aids, possibly a wheelchair but even now she has days she is aching, tired, struggling with mobility/balance (her hips seem to be most affected on this score) and has had awful comments when on bus/train even if she shows her disability pass (which was hard won and she is definitely entitled to) because she looks young, slim, fit and healthy.

I’ve had comments re using disabled loos - as well as everything else I have irritable bowel so can need to get to loo FAST! Add that to difficulties walking and particularly problems navigating steps (a lot of pubs and restaurants seem to have their toilets in basements or on top floor) especially if there’s no bloody bannister! So yes I do need to and am eligible to use the disabled loo!

I’ll use the “normal” loos if I possibly can as I try and leave the disabled loos for those more disabled than me if I can but sometimes yes I really do need to use them.

And while not wheelchair using or other mobility aid using permanently as yet (if I’m very bad I can be using a cane or crutches) I certainly sympathise and find things like badly maintained pavements/roads, puddles, overgrown hedges etc a total pain.

I used to live in Germany and things like overgrown hedges, blocking pavements with construction materials etc are strictly policed there, such things are criminal offences if they impact on others and it is dealt with quickly and forcefully! And their roads and pavements were always in good repair too.

This country is a mess now!

Nasty ageism from people.

Here's the government report. Bear in mind that the majority of local councils do not prosecute, a significant proportion do not even have a policy.

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/blue-badge-scheme-statistics-2019

So 2 mil held and 1400 prosecuted. 1% of 2 mil is 20.000. So even if the number of fraudster was 10 times more than those prosecuted it wouldn't even get close to 1%.

And that justifies the abuse,harassment, questioning and policing of every BB holder? Considering they are more likely than not disabled? Or only just those that "don't look disabled"?

Can't you see how absurd,ridiculous and unfair that is?

Disabled people are not fair game. They are not public property. If you're that worried about BB fraud,report it.

@loubieloo4 I missed your post when i first posted on this thread. Im so sorry and am hoping for that Christmas miracle for you.

DH had a BB. Doesnt now as the council wanted him to travel to another town for a medical. He isnt/wasnt well enough to do so.

This was about 3 years ago so no BB now.

Helena
Ffs. That’s the bloody irony of it. It took me weeks of prep to be well enough to go through the appointment with the occupational therapist. It’s pretty gruelling actually. Luckily I have made progress since having surgeries and am more mobile. Sorry your dh has been too ill to attend any appointments.

I have no idea what the Blue Badge Vigilante Squad think they are going to achieve by challenging people that they don't think look disabled enough.
If you are sufficiently lacking in morals to be using a fake badge or one that doesn't belong to you in the first place, you are not likely to have a crisis of conscience if a member of the public asks why you have it. Fake BB User is not going to say "You've got me bang to rights there Guv'nor, I'll come quietly" even if the Vigilante is right - they will ignore, laugh, or lie some more.
Not displaying a badge is a bit different, but even then I have to confess I would be more likely to report it than confront someone myself. I wouldn't want to risk getting thumped or worse I'm afraid. But challenging someone who is displaying a badge is just stupid. At best it is pointless and at worst, deeply offensive.

I parked up in a disabled space with dd (badgeholder) at the supermarket and one if the employees was just parking up next to me in the next disabled bay. She licked the car and I said, smiley like, ‘oh, you’ve forgotten to put your badge out’. She just looked at me and said ‘I don’t have one. I’m not disabled. The manager lets us park there if we’re finishing late so we don’t have to walk across the car park in the dark.’
So if you’re ever wondering why the spots are always full, it’s employee parking next to the doors, not really disabled parking.

Ffs. She didn’t lick it. Obviously.

best reply to this is and its your business why?we have 2 badges acually so fuck off or are you the badge police then?no, jog on then you nosy fucker

we have 2 blue badges,boys are 15 6ft 2 and 9 5ft 3 so very big boys,both solid ruby player size(dont or never played it though)but have numerous mental disabilities each so look physically very fine and healthy but need a adult each and are 24 hour care and both have been know to bolt(proper tern is flight)if they get overwhelmed so we have to park as close as possible to entrances.

both boys need their hands holding at all times as well

the oldest is on his nonsense award,was awarded 4 years at 8 and then till hes 18,youngest was awarded a 5 year badge at 7

the amount of times ive had run ins with busy bodies(always pensioners in our experience) assuming there nothing wrong with the boys and we shouldn't be there,they soon shut up with my response though
we have also had why are they not in school then?when they dont like my response

As a disabled person myself,I am totally gob smacked at some of the experiences that posters have described. I don't have a blue badge myself,as I don't drive and don't have anyone who could drive me,so obviously I have not experienced any problems like these. I do,however,use public transport regularly,and the sheer ignorance,rudeness and unpleasantness directed at disabled people by other passengers often leaves me speechless. (yes,certain buggy users,I'm looking at you and your refusal to make way for a wheelchair user in the WHEELCHAIR PRIORITY space).
But my question is this:- Just why are some members of the public so over-invested in the whys and wherefores of disabled people and blue badge holders? Haven't they got anything better to do with their time than take on the role of blue badge police?

I don't have a blue badge myself,as I don't drive and don't have anyone who could drive me,so obviously I have not experienced any problems like these.

You could still apply for a BB.

Just why are some members of the public so over-invested in the whys and wherefores of disabled people and blue badge holders? Haven't they got anything better to do with their time than take on the role of blue badge police?

because they're hypocritical cunts who like to hide their disgusting selfishness under a veneer of faux "concern" for the less able that they can then use in their mastubatory fantasies about being "good person". These are the same cunts who will walk away from having a good old uncalled for ding-dong with a potentially vulnerable less-able person and park their enormous self inflated person in a lift and then find the scenery strangely fascinating when a person in a wheelchair (who, let's remind ourselves *has no choice but to use the lift) appears at the doors and can't get in because it's full.

But cunty able bodied people clogging lifts up whilst wheelchair users wait (and wait and wait) is probably best saved for another thread.

A Council near me in Sweden has started putting up these signs to deter those shitty people who park in the Blue Badge parking without a badge and think its OK because they were just "nipping in".

The text translated is Laziness is not a disability

I’ve only had my badge 2 months. Already I’ve had a comment at work, one at the supermarket and an old man sat in his car shaking his head at me today as I parked (before I even had chance to get my badge out). Just because I am in my 30s, I clearly can’t be disabled.

I am 40, have a blue badge and look like I don’t need it. I won’t ever tell anyone why I have it, let them look. I almost dare them to challenge me. “You don’t look disabled” “you don’t look like a cunt and yet here we are”

Michael McIntyre covered this in a sketch when he joked about people looking at those in disabled bays with suspicion. He said that unless that person fell put the car and then dragged their bodies along the floor to their destination some people wouldn't be happy with them having a disability badge! Seems it's such a sad part of society that stick their noses into things that are really of no concern. Just makes them all bitter and twisted. They must be constantly on the look out to criticize anyone!