Do you think this fair, blue light discount?

[MrsWaltonGoggins]

I tried to use my blue light card in a restaurant today, and they say they only accept it now if you have an nhs or military id. They said this is because they have teachers using the blue light and they believe it should be for healthcare workers only. I said that I am a nurse, I just don’t work for the nhs and don’t really think that’s fair.

Has anyone else come across this? Surely if you offer blue light discount it should be for anyone with a blue light card.

Why not?

It is not about making things cheaper for certain people... it is about the retailer looking good, and drawing in customers.
If something is free (or reduced), you are the product.

I think it is given to NHS staff only because people working in the private sector are normally on better wages and have proper benefits in place like private healthcare plans etc. That was my understanding of it but happy to be told otherwise.

Nandos? They’ve recently changed it I think, the website is really clear. That’s not to say if I think it’s fair or not, I’m on the fence!

Several of my friends have blue light cards, most of them deserving but the two I object to are the dinner lady working 3x 1 hour shifts a week and the £120k+ director of a charity who sits on his fat arse working behind a computer all week

I was annoyed when the Covid vaccine was rolled out. NHS staff quite rightly had it first but that included people working in back offices who had no contact with the public. Plenty of people who were working in public facing roles had to wait like everyone else.

Yes, this tbh. DH uses blue light scheme - mainly for DS’ Nando’s habit! - and it strikes me as a bit ridiculous when he’s a consultant in the top 5-ish% of earners. A nurse, whether NHS employed or not, otoh…. 🤔

This also needs to be laid to rest. I have worked in the private sector for 40 years in a professional sector. I have never been paid a bonus nor had private healthcare. I honestly don't know where this nonsense comes from but it feeds into the notion that public sector workers are harder done by. They aren't.

literally nobody on this thread has said that teacher's aren't "front line" though...

whatever front line actually means.

but it's not called a front line, card, is it? It's a blue light card. Teachers are important but they aren't an emergency service.

besides which it's irrelevant what we think 'counts', BLC can add whatever roles they want, and it's then for those individuals to apply, if they want, and business to sign up, if they want.

In restaurants and in shops? Do they? I didn’t know that.

That's cheeky - you might have chosen to go there because of being able to get the discount.

I'd report it to Blue light - regardless of views of whether the eligibility is too wide now, if they advertise offering the discount to card holders then they should do just that.

I don’t work for a private sector I work for the council btw.

in the terms and conditions for quite a few retailers, they mentioning wanting to see work ID - not something always routinely given out at my work.

Is it an independent restaurant or a chain?

Is it near a big school or something? Maybe that's part of their reasoning.

I had it in Super drug the other day. They wanted NHS Id

Could you tell me where please. I'm 68. The only discount I get is cheaper entrance fees to zoos and castles etc. But I still can't afford those.

Why are people on here arguing about the merit or morality of their public sector job?! Trying to outcompete with each other about who is the most “deserving” of the card or who suffers the most or who serves the public more or who needs food banks the most or who gets paid the least?! It’s ridiculous.

The blue light card is fuck all to do with rewarding people for being “angels” or “superheroes”. It’s literally a company trying to make a profit by getting you to spend money by offering you a discount at a range of stores. Within a few years it will pretty much be expanded to most public sector jobs. It’s got nothing to do with who “deserves” it more. It was a nice feel-good marketing gimmick upon launch to give a little discount to some front line workers post-Covid to get them to spend their money in dying sectors.

You can literally find a promo code to anything online if you look hard enough. Almost every worker in any industry can get some sort of discount scheme or rewards card. Loads get heavy discounts at the company they work for. Every student in the country gets a similar student discount and it’s nothing to do with how nice they are as a person. Most students are a PITA. Companies offer student discounts because students have disposable income, love spending and a small discount will get their business over another.

The gatekeeping over who should benefit from the scheme is bizzare. They way people are going on about it you’d think it was the Olympic torch or something instead of an utterly mid discount card. I cannot believe anyone could possibly care about a teacher getting 20% off at Nandos! The blue light scheme is a private company making a profit, they’re not your mate.

As far as I know, Superdrug, like Nando’s, don’t take BLC but offer NHS discount and ask for proof of this.

There is the Defence Discount card for military but I qualify for both and am pretty sure it's the same mob running them both.

This is annoying for those of us that can't be carting our ID around and showing it outside of work for security reasons.

I don't think this happened. At all.

What I do think is OP is trying to stealth start a debate on who should/shouldn't be in the scheme- based no doubt on who she thinks shoukd/shouldn't be in the scheme (teachers)

Its worked nicely

My place of work refuses blue light too but we have discounts for army and police.

They must provide proof too

Their establishment, they can do what they want.

Teachers actually start on an annual salary of approx £38k but they don’t get paid for the majority of the school holidays so it’s pro-rata’d down to £31.5k

That’s not the case at all. It just bothered me that she made a point about them only wanting nurses and doctors etc to have the discount, which annoyed me as I am also a nurse but just don’t work for the NHS.

It's not a reward for working in these sectors it is a marketing scheme, just like groupon or topcashback but targeted at a specific group. They can let anyone in they want - presumably the more people they have on the books the more attractive it is for retailers to spend their "discount" here rather than a 2 for 1 voucher or whatever. The AA has one for discounts on restaurants etc, my bank has one of these scheme if you quality.