To be so upset at a strangers passive aggressive remarks (Blue Badge)

[Tryingtogetonwithit]

Today in tesco carpark loading my shopping into the car with my teen daughter a lady n the row of cars behind me exclaimed loudly while helping her elderly mother out of the car "I can't believe everyone using the disabled spaces are actually disabled, look they are leaving now should we move" she continued talking but I couldn't here but didn't stop staring at me.

For clarity I have MS I usually walk with a stick but in tesco I use trolley for balance. I drive my own car and have the audacity to go out in public and do my own shopping. I have had comments before (even one man asking me to show him my blue badge!!) today just hit deep, I don't know why maybe because I was with my daughter and didn't want to make a scene.

It's taken me years to come to terms having MS and I held out for a long time not getting a blue badge. I have been medically Retired from a job I adored and didn't pass probationary period on another due to sick leave. I am currently unemployed and looks like I will be for the foreseeable as I'm so up and down healthwise. Single mum to teens/young adults and never seen myself ever being a benefits claimer, worked from i was 15, further education, married and had kids (before divorce) it gets me down daily my life isn't what I worked so hard for.

People don't realise and or maybe don't care how hurtful a passing comment can be when you are struggling.

Sorry for the post, somehow it's been carthitic letting it go in the ether of MN lol

I am sick to death of people acting as blue badge police, and being unable to understand that not all disabilities are visible.

Why do you think it's a myth? I can assure you it's not.

I'm so sorry you were subjected to this @Tryingtogetonwithit

I have a couple of friends who are Blue Badge owners, and they are 35 and 45, and apparently if you're 'youngish,' you're not worthy of a blue badge! They are ALWAYS being 'got at!'

They have had people tutting and huffing and puffing and shaking their head at them, and even going up to the CAR to check they have a blue badge in the window. They have even had 'don't look very disabled to ME' barked at them. It's always the same kind of person too. Someone 10-20 years older. Not their age or younger, and not over 65s. Always a certain type of middle aged (or just past middle aged person,) and usually a woman.

Some people are utter tic turds, and think they have a right to an opinion when someone has a blue badge and they don't think they look disabled enough. Some people are not physically disabled (invisible disability, or mental health issue,) and still have a blue badge and they NEED the blue badge! They are hard to get and are not given out willy nilly, yet people act as if someone has stolen it and they don't deserve it! Urgh some people are judgy!

It is a myth though and the facts show it.

There are approximately 2.5 million current blue badges. The average rate of prosecution/confiscation for misuse is approximately 690 badges a year - around 0.03% of the total badges on circulation.

To even qualify for a blue badge you need to meet specific criteria and provide evidence such as PIP/DLA claim confirmation, medical reports, etc. PIP/DLA have the lowest instances of benefit fraud - only around 1.2% of all claims are paid incorrectly due to either claimant error or DWP error. A lot of medical evidence is needed to claim PIP and DLA therefore it's safe to assume that the vast, vast majority of people receiving it are genuine and that can be extrapolated to include blue badge holders.

Did ye, aye?

My DH has recently got his BB and has good days and bad days with his condition. Some days he walks reasonably well.Some days he really struggles and is in a lot of pain. For the first time we went on holiday with the badge and it made a huge difference being able to park nearer locations.You have enough to cope with without that.So sorry you experienced that.

This doesn’t ring true. I’ve been applying for the badge for my mum for years and I’ve never heard of people collecting their badges, the only option given is to pay a £10 fee for the badge and have it posted to you.

I once worked in the council office issuing blue badges (as in I was actually physically making them to be issued). The number of people I saw abusing them was astounding. They'd hobble into the office, moaning and groaning and in 'obvious' pain, collect their badge, hobble out, and once they were out the doors they miraculously sprinted off like spring chickens. Happens a lot more than you would think

No you didn't. That's not how you get a blue badge. What are you lieing for?

Wow, just wow.

Of course I'm not calling disabled people liars, but there are people who play the system - there always are.

And only approved based on eligible benefits or a medical examination by a qualified doctor.

I must've done this in an alternate reality then. You know, sitting there with scissors and a laminator making up the badges, where I could see through the window people coming in to collect them. My bad.

Yeah, I sometimes say to people, oh YES- we are THRILLED that husband has multiple myeloma. It's been a fucking GODSEND in terms of getting a blue badge.

so fucking blessed

🤣 and 🤬

Again, I must be mistaken and imagined sitting there for months making badges and issuing them and getting paid a salary to do so. My employers must not have realised it wasn't the fairies who made the badges every night.

And at what point did your ability to faff about with scissors and a laminator qualify you to make medical judgements about disabled strangers without so much as a read of their medical records?

I never said anything of the sort. All I said was that I saw people coming in looking obviously disabled, and then make a 'miraculous' recovery once they where out the door. This happened, a lot. It was years ago though, so perhaps things have changed now, since people say the badges get posted. Then, people who were able came to collect their badges in our smallish town.

Sorry. We aren't supposed to do this because on this site we are supposed to be " kind". You are lying. Or in that alternate reality you are claiming. Blue badges are posted out AFTER evidence by qualified medical professionals or disability benefits are provided- on line or by post. The cards are not laminated - they are printed. Anyone who had ever seen one knows this to be a fact and that what you are claiming is simply impossible and not true.

If I get banned or deleted for calling you out on this lie, fine - it says nothing about me and everything about this site that continually allows people with disabilities to be attacked as liars and frauds without intervention.

It's the bloody truth though. There are people who play the system. I did NOT imagine someone hobbling in, then get their badge and once outside meet up with friends, high five them and sprint away. It happened.

And I take offence to you saying I'm disablist - I have a child with disabilities. All I'm saying is that there are people taking the piss, not that all disabled people take the piss.

My mum gets this alot as she looks healthy, looks after my 15 month old while i work and can walk which obviously means she cannot be disabled. The fact that she had 20% of her lung removed as had lung cancer 4 years ago doesnt seem to matter. She can walk & push my son in his pram quite easily on flat ground at a slower pace to most but struggles to walk uphill. She told one guy that said about her blue badge that he could have the badge if he wanted it but he had to take the cancer too, he soon shut up and walked off.

She actually had this twice last week, both times she had one of her grandchildren with her.

Some people forget that you cant see all disabilities and many have them for various reasons. So sorry you have to go through this.

Well yes, quite. They are not awarded to people on a whim. You have to have proof of whatever difficulty it may be to require one.

Oh FFS - this was years ago - the system has obviously changed since I worked there. Things change you know.

My cousins wife is an amputee after being in a car accident in her teens.
Shes only in her 20s and she gets loads of comments when she parks in a disabled bay.
She’s very bolshy and tells people to fuck off, she’s also been known to flash her prosthetics at people and that usually shuts them up.

This is the last time I will say this. If someone came into the office barely able to walk, then once they had their badge in their hands walked out like an able bodied person half their age with a spring in their step, I call that a miraculous recovery.