1 in 20 people have a blue badge?

[Oodlesofnoodlez]

So I’ve just had to battle to get a family member a blue badge, they receive high rate of everything and immobile but still a complete battle.

so I’m thinking ‘ok it must be very very difficult to get therefore hardly any must be issued’…. Nope figures from 22-23 show almost 5% that’s 2.6 million people have a blue badge.

surely these figures cannot be correct?

will it be completely impossible to find disabled spaces now we’ve got the badge?

we are in the SE

I have a blue badge, i do not get higher rate of anything and my condition is not related too MH. My need is no lesser than that of anyone else. If there is a space i will use it, if there is not one, i will park elsewhere or come back.

I am surprised that the OP had a struggle to get a blue badge when they are on the higher rate for PiP as i believe its automatic in those circumstaces especially for mobility issues?

So it seems that basically PIP doesn’t really hold any weight with BBadges, so bizarre

I don't know about England but you only get a disabled spot if you have no parking available ie you live in a terrace. Anyone who has a blue badge can park in it, it doesn't technically "belong" to anyone.

My dd gets high rate and has a motability car but apparently doesn't qualify for a blue badge like the other poster.

Make it make sense.

It used to be automatic if you had the higher rate for mobility as a few years ago I got one but when I went to reapply this year the LA had changed the criteria .

Nope sadly not automatic as many other posters have said too.

just an eye opener and a very unpleasant experience for everyone involved

as the blue badge is actually awarded by the council.. do you think its to do with that? i have a friend who battled for 6 months to be awarded hers, yet i applied online, paid my £10 and had my 'award' email the next day and my badge arrived in the post 3 weeks later and the only real difference was the local authority?

Wow okay, that makes a bit more sense as to why the huge process but very odd rules in my opinion

I had to get at least 8 points on one section and I think I had 6 and then I had to get 10 points under planning and following a journey but descriptor e and f are both 10 points and they only accept the 10 from e and I got my 10 points on f

*edited to add it was 8 points needed on ‘moving around ‘and I had 4 not 6

Yes of course she’s in the wrong. They’re disabled spaces not OAP spaces. Tell her to apply for a badge.

Many elderly people seem to forget that they are disabled badges and not elderly badges. I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve been stopped pulling into a space and questioned by an older person because I’m young.

I'm curious what you feel the right amount of disability issues that warrent a badge, if you think that 5% seems wrong somehow.

There's so much that can go wrong with a human body from conception till you die. It actually seems odd to me that only 5% need wider spaces, closer to facilities..

I dont think I have a figure of a right amount. If some nasty virus swept through we could all be disabled.

We need to design stuff for reality, not what we think it should be though.

In England, the enhanced rate of the mobility PIP does not automatically result in a person being eligible for a blue badge. In England, to be automatically eligible as a result of the PIP you receive, one needs at least 8 points on the moving around activity &/or 10 points exactly under descriptor E on the planning and following a journey activity.

So someone could have enhanced mobility and be eligible for a motability vehicle by having 12 points on the planning and following a journey activity but not eligible for a blue badge.

If your relative doesn’t have at least 8 points on the moving around criteria, and needing to ‘battle’ for the blue badge means they can’t have, yet they are immobile they obviously haven’t been awarded the right points.

F on the planning and following a journey activity is 12 points. It is descriptors d and e that are 10 points. And only e that automatically means someone is eligible for a blue badge.

Not my experience, sadly. I get low rate mobility, but had to really fight to get my blue badge on appeal. Had to go to an interview to tell them exactly the same as what was in the paperwork....

Yes but it used to just be a universal thing in my LA where the only automatic criteria for a bb was high rate mobility pip they have now changed it to be more specific about how the points are awarded. I got 14 for that part so get high rate but the distribution of my points meant they wouldn’t give me a bb

This is my LA criteria for automatically getting a bb and when I went to see them they still said no. Despite having enhanced rate and driving a motability car !

So from everyone’s feedback it seems that each LA is just doing whatever they like in regards to awarding badges 🤷🏼‍♀️

Wait so they ignored their own criteria? I’m so sorry

No they had changed it since the last time so I wasn’t automatically entitled. I had to submit a really long form which went to a third party assessor who then called me then made me go to a f2f assessment and they said no I didn’t qualify for one under the LA criteria

They also charge £10 at the point of application and I had to call numerous times to get that back after my application was rejected !

I was told when I questioned this, it's set by the government.

That must be something unique to your council. In England, the national criteria are set by the government, and it has never been the case that all in receipt of the enhanced mobility component of PIP have been automatically eligible. Only those who receive certain points.

Because they are for people with mobility issues. I mean this seems far too obvious an answer…

Well you don't get a motability vehicle for free. With high rate mobility you are entitled to LEASE a motability vehicle.

Someone with severe learning disabilities might always need someone to accompany them out and about and having the car and/or a bus pass which allows a companion helps to facilitate that but they don't necessarily need a wide parking space or one closer to a building entrance unless their behaviour is impulsive and unpredictable and a walk through a car park or down a pavement either full of people or near a busy road potentially dangerous.

Someone with a blue badge because of MH difficulties has also been judged to have mobility difficulties. Mobility difficulties aren’t solely due to physical mobility difficulties.