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'm sure many exploit the system. I have often watched people pull up outside a shop, put a sticker on the dashboard, and then hop out the car and walk into the shop quicker than me.

That's not exploitation, that's you making the judgement that they should not have a BB when you know absolutely nothing about them.

Could have a bowel issue that means they urgently need to get to a toilet

She's probably trying to hang onto her independence and normal way of life.x

Totally agree. But she is no longer respectful of family time and commitments. So her independence is only currently being achieved at cost to others. Unpaid.

It could get them into a lot of trouble. When I pointed out the possible consequences of using FIL's blue badge to MIL when he wasn't with her she soon stopped using it, at least when I was with her and offering to pay for the parking (this was back when blue badge parking was automatically free in a lot of places).

It's already a fight for disabled spaces so with the recent changes it's gonna be harder.

I am also in SE and over the moon to have just been awarded a blue badge for my frail 87 year old mum with minimal mobility and dementia.
It was a right battle trying to provide the 'proof' that her local council required which stipulated letters from Consultants confirming her afflictions (we have none) and states we absolutely must not approach a GP for this evidence.
Taking her to appointments has been a nightmare prior to this as an ordinary parking space does not allow for the car doors to open wide enough to get her and the wheelchair out.
She gashed her leg in a fall recently requiring frequent dressings and the District Nurses would not come out to her 'as she can get in a car she is not housebound' and the rage at this gave me the final push in my battle.
This week we went off happily to the appointment armed with the blue badge only to find all disabled spaces full!

What are the changes?

My dad had motor neurone disease. He couldnt bear any weight on his legs and needed a wheelchair even for the shortest distance. He was initially given a blue badge no problem. Parents then moved house to a different local authority to be in an accessible property. The new council refused to give him a badge and said he wasn’t eligible! He eventually got one but my mum had to get his consultant and the MND association involved before the council would back down.

In most supermarkets you could use their wheelchair/seats/mobility scooter, see the elderly person into them and park. If you are shopping with someone who can't be reliably left while you park, or might need to be got to the car quickly if they have been triggered by shopping, you don't have the same level of choices.

We have an aging population, an increase in MH conditions, including dementia and research/treatment options means that more people are living with disabilities after partial recovery. Which is always going to mean the amount of people entitled to BB is going to increase.

People with mental health and mild autism etc claim it’s as they panic to find a parking space and would have a panic attack over finding one. But surely, you’d have more severe anxiety over risking someone challenging your blue badge because you look ‘normal’ (not saying it’s right at all, but it happens).

I know a woman who claims her anxiety is so severe that she cannot leave her home - so she gets top pip, and a blue badge as a result. She goes to raves all weekend, every weekend. She works in a pub talking to customers day and night. Shes on the con yet she happily parks in a disabled parking space. I’m physically disabled and if I can’t get a close space, I physically cannot go so people with mental health problems who don’t need a close space annoys me

@thecherryfox It's not about being physically close to the shop. In fact usually there are non-disabled bays closer to the shop than the furthest away disabled bays. It's about being able to navigate the car park safely. As in giving people safe room to get in and out of the car and a direct route to the shop that doesn't involve having to dodge cars while crossing a busy car park. Car parks are dangerous places. People with certain mental illnesses struggle to navigate safely in that type of environment. Hence why they are entitled to Blue Badges.

We got a Blue Badge easily, but it depends on your disability or medical condition.
A couple of years ago the criteria for Blue Badges was expanded to include neurodiversity, and the number of Blue Badges issues increased a fair bit.
We do find it hard sometimes to find a disabled space. And you have to go very early to the hospital and hang about, to have any chance there.

And we need closeness to where we are going as well as an extra wide space.

That's absolutely shocking, what in the world were they thinking.. just can't imagine several people sat round deciding that.

This varies by council. In my area, it is automatic eligibility if you scored 10 points on Activity 11 (not the higher 12 points), or a certain level on 12.

I've been glared at plenty of times for doing this. You can see other BB holders staring/glaring at DH and I (I can't drive anymore so he's always with me) as we get out of the car and nip into a shop.

What they don't see is us leaving the shop halfway through because fatigue and exhaustion hits me out of nowhere like a brick wall, or me being completely out of it post-ictal and unable to remember where we parked, never mind make it back safely.

When you see someone for thirty seconds, you see them for thirty seconds - you do not see enough of their life to know whether they need a blue badge or not.

Agree with this

It was because he didn’t (and couldn’t) claim pip because he was diagnosed at 70. So it was a “computer says no” decision on the basis that “if you aren’t eligible for pip you can’t really have any mobility issues” (despite medical letters demonstrating that he did.

I am not surprised to see the usual tropes being banded about, regarding BB. It is sad to see the posts alluding to people somehow cheating the system by having a BB, because they don't look disabled enough, or they saw someone for 10 seconds walk away somewhere. Some people can be very quick to judge. If someone has a BB, then there is a reason for that.

My DM could walk up to a point, but not the distance from the car park to e.g the optician’s - or anywhere else that I needed to take her. And because she had dementia, I couldn’t drop her anywhere to wait for me, since she’d immediately forget that I was coming back very soon, and get into a complete panic.

So thank goodness that once she moved to a care home they had BBs I could borrow.

Surely it makes no difference as they will be parked somewhere nearby anyway.

Blue badges can be issued for a lot of things and many people will therefore have them. I used to work with someone, she was late 20s, super healthy, exercised a lot but has CF so had a blue badge. She didn’t use it but still had it. From the outside the had zero signs of a disability and that’s why she said she didn’t use it.

@Oodlesofnoodlez I thought if you received the higher rate of PIP for the mobility component you could tick a box on the blue badge application to say so, which meant you didn't need to fill out the whole form and would be eligible for the badge. I wonder if they have changed it?

To date both my dds have received their blue badges with no refusal, and I really hope that doesn't change. They both have mobility issues and use wheelchairs when out and about, but I know not all disabilities are visible so I wouldn't assume just because someone doesn't use a walking aid they aren't disabled in some way, and they aren't deserving of a blue badge.