Been told I’m not disabled by work for car parking purposes

[Provingdisability]

When I applied and got my job 10 years ago I ticked the box saying I considered myself disabled. I have an autoimmune disease diagnosed when I was 20. 30 years ago, it does give me fatigue and digestive problems and some other issues but I manage these with diet and medication and regular blood tests and support from my GP. I have never had a day off work. This diagnosis was provided to work before I started.

2 years ago I was diagnosed with autism, adhd, dyslexia and letters were clinically provided by the nhs and my GP.

I was sent to OH and they made a series of recommendations and work had a meeting and basically they all but laughed and said ‘we need to treat everybody the same at work and you can’t be treated differently’
I tried to explain about reasonable adjustments and they said ‘making any of these reasonable adjustments for you makes every other persons workload higher and we have to treat you fairly and therefore OH recommendations are just that recommendations and not a legal requirement so no you aren’t having them
This was said direct to my union and by the Head of HR. Union have said they are right and OH is not a legal requirement. OH asked for a risk assessment to be carried out and this was refused HR said it wasn’t needed.

In my office we have 100 parking spaces for like 1000 employees. If you don’t get a an allocated space (which you pay for) you either have to get public transport or risk a fine for parking on the road - there are no spaces on the road eg all allocated parking for residents.

For the last 10 years I have applied on distance and been given a permit. I live 2 hours away by public transport. This year I thought I would apply for a permit based on disability grounds as my GP and occupational health both wrote to work to advise them that I needed a parking permit and to tick the disabled box. OH report says public transport is too overwhelming for my autoimmune disease and fatigue and ND.

Work have sent me a letter saying ‘having checked with HR we have no record of you being disabled so a parking permit can not allocated on these grounds. Please prove you are disabled. I have letters confirming all my diagnosis which have been supplied previously to work (HR) and an OH report. I feel like work just aren’t listening.

How can I do this or can anyone help me draft a reply?

I haven’t applied for a blue badge as I don’t tend to go anywhere in the car except work. do I need to? My local authority said my disability was hidden and they don’t tend to give them in those circumstances (exact wording of an email from them)

@Provingdisability definitely apply for a Blue Badge - the local authority can only say no, but in light of the recent changes to include those with hidden disabilities (Including ND) I think you stand a good chance of succeeding this time. If you can, get someone with Blue Badge application experience to help you fill in the forms - sometimes it’s about getting the wording just right with key phrases (descriptors). I’d do this first before looking at the work parking permit again. Good luck!

Your thread title is a little misleading, work haven’t said you aren’t disabled, HR have said they don’t have a record of your disability in your personnel file so it sounds like an admin error given they’ve previously referred you to their OH team. Go back to them, provide them with details of when they’ve been made aware of this in the past and provide details of when and who you dealt with for the OH report then see what they say.

As well as blue badge application, I would focus on the autoimmune disease for the medical grounds. Dyslexia wouldn't have bearing on travel and plenty of audhd people use public transport. Neurodiversity is easier for companies to disregard than physical illnesses.

I hope that this doesn't turn into another "you're not disabled enough" thread.

Have you got a record of what you sent them when you started? And the letters you provided when you got your additional diagnoses? If you send them again surely they can correct the record.

If you’ve never had a day off sick thus far, what adjustments do you want now? You’ve proven you’re a good worker so your employer is probably thinking why change anything. Unless your performance has worsened?

You would need to apply for the blue badge then show work so it's noted on your records

I agree. I suspect their "criteria" for issuing parking permits is based on whether you've a blue badge or not. It makes their admin a whole lot easier and more consistent. It may be a recent change, perhaps they now have more than 100 people claiming they're disabled enough for a parking permit and are having to be more consistent and fair with who they give the limited number of permits to. After all, if they have a fixed sized car park, they can hardly issue more permits than they have spaces, so to an extent, it has to be rationed so maybe they were a little more flexible in the past, but now if they have more than 100 applications, they need to strengthen the criteria? It'll be a lot harder for them to refuse a parking permit once you have a blue badge. Anyway, even if you can't park in their car park, it'll enable you to park on a nearby restricted road without getting a fine (assuming you're not obstructing the road and not parking where even blue badge holders aren't allowed to park).

I think the issue is, you didn't develop autism. You always had it and you managed to sustain the role for 8 years without extra adjustments before you had the label identified. Therefore it's a reasonable conclusion that the adjustments would make your life easier, as they would most people, but they aren't necessary.

If HR don't have a record of your disability is that because, having decided they would not be making adjustments, they destroyed the information in keeping with their data retention policy so they weren't holding on to sensitive information they had no need of? Just wondering if, rather than being obstructive, or incompetent losing it, they were following good practice?

But, in any case, treat this as a completely new thing. Ask them what the threshold is (e.g. do they only provide if you have a blue badge) and then providing them with what they asked for. If you can get a blue badge that will probably be useful in even if you don't get a parking spot.

I can see their point that accommodations that increase everyone else's workload are not reasonable ones, I'm afraid, so I don't think they've treated you poorly so far, though I do understand why you might feel they're pretty inflexible and concerned they are just trying to refuse everything. But if you think they were incorrect about the accommodations not being reasonable can you ask your union to seek a legal opinion?

The OP has applied for an allocated parking space and her employer has basically told her to fuck off, she can't have one.

No they haven’t, they’ve said ‘we don’t have a record of your disability please provide evidence, so we can review it and assess your need for a parking space.’

Now then @InfoSecInTheCity dont spoil the drama with reality… 😉

I’d say apply anyway to your local council for a blue badge. It can open up other benefits to you without you needing further assessment, such as the workplace scenario you’re facing.
You can then use it as evidence whenever asked

Would it be easier to reapply based on distance since they've always awarded you one for that before?

it's not really clear if you'd meet the criteria for a blue badge but if you do there's a long wait to actually get one.

What is the autoimmune disease?

Why didn’t you just apply for the parking space on the grounds of distance, seeing as that was previously successful?

Have you moved closer to work?

It doesn’t sound like they’re saying you’re not disabled, but more like they don’t have it on record. I have a few disabilities and know that either things like blue badge and pip, a diagnosis, doesn’t automatically mean disabled, and because your previous permits haven’t been health related, I’m not saying I agree with the process but it sounds like they have criteria you need to need for distance permits, so it makes sense you’d need have to meet criteria for a disabled permit.

My council require a certain amount of points in the moving around element of pip lot evidence from your doctor stating mobility needs and the process is long where I am, it took four months for my renewal. I don’t go anywhere much but it can make things much less stressful when I do, all the hospital and appointments that come with autoimmune disease for example, having the badge opens more parking options and only the bad days, it is is the difference between me being able to attend my appointments or not. Def apply for one if you meet the criteria. The worse that can happen is you get told no.

You don’t need to prove you’re disabled. You just need to declare it, giving the reason why.
For all of the people saying you need to prove it, any condition seriously affecting you for more than six months can be classed as a disability. I’ve done it when I was working. For the record, I ended up retiring because I couldn’t keep up with working because of my condition.
Don't give up, @Provingdisability. This is a time when you need to be resilient even if you don’t feel it. I was very lucky and when I contacted my local mental health services I was able to access counselling (in fact three different counsellors for different reasons) alongside asking my union for help.
I hope you are able to access some help.

I think you just need to provide the evidence they want and explain why it means you need the parking space. So it’s specifically evidence for this request. I would focus more on your autoimmune disease and how that physically impacts you and means you need a space close to the entrance as you can’t walk long distances due to fatigue.

if it is well managed with the diet and medication as you’ve said, you might not qualify but if it does impact your ability to get to work then you should definitely state exactly why with your evidence.

I have always been autistic. I thought what I had outside of work was ‘normal’ getting home and being so exhausted I couldn’t move or do anything basic and weekends unable to speak to others etc it isn’t ‘normal’ and my GP and autistic specialist (counsellors etc) have warned my work (in writing) that I am ill and heading towards an autistic burnout.

HR have all 3 diagnosis letters and all of them have been given to work as documents, including my line manager, my head of department, head of HR and the Line manager of my head of department.

HR don’t seem get it. They have said - we are all tired at the end of the day. OH have said (to work) you are working her to the point of no return and risking autistic meltdown by not implementing previous reasonable adjustments from other OH reports (ironically the OH assessment work sent me to). You are asking her to do more - not less than others and with no reasonable adjustments. The Head of the organisation told me my autism is my and therefore the organisation’s ‘superpower’ as I am so efficient and will stay and complete whatever is needed by whatever the deadline is.

They have my disabilities in writing but they do not make me disabled (according to work). It’s taken me a long time to understand yes I do my job but the effect on me is meltdowns, no work life balance, no sleep (I’m on medication and sleeping meds as I am constantly anxious).

^I wrote the above last night and I was really quite overwhelmed with it. Today feels brighter and I’ve taken on board the things some people have said eg apply for a blue badge and I’ve had to filter out odd mean comment eg the person that said basically this wasn’t reality and I was making a drama out of it.

I do tend to spiral and see things as very black and white and no shades of grey- welcome to my autism!! . I went in to work early, had a cup of tea. I took my documents with me (autism assessment, adhd assessment, all the OH reports and a previous letter written by the GP to the workplace about following the OH reports asking the to follow all the guidance in the OH report in light of my diagnoses which she had also listed. This was hard as I struggle to vocalise my feelings and I do find social meetings / eg face to face really hard.

I took these to the woman who had sent me the email and who allocates the parking permits. She was very nice and said the documentation was more than enough to prove yes I was disabled and qualified.

I had some time at lunch today and I phoned my Autism mentor (that I pay privately for counselling and have been for a while whilst I grapple with my diagnosis) and I found that useful and might apply for a blue badge both the lady at work and my mentor said I didn’t need to but I probably qualify for one and might find it useful.

So I am going to apply for a blue badge and if anyone has any advice please let me know. In the meanwhile the woman who allocates the permit has entered on my file that I am disabled and she has seen evidence.

For some people to understand my workplace is so hard for someone with my condition - I am good at what I do but it has a high impact on me personally, health wise, medically and a lot of it is ‘hidden’. But I can drive to Tesco panic that I can’t park where I normally do and literally come home crying. I have strategies to cope like most people I have methods and things that work for me. Eg I work silently through lunch to cope with my work load and do not go to the canteen as that would be too overwhelming for me.

It is not a physical disability but I have had various people say stuff like - oh that’s really noticeably an autistic thing you do (?) can you stop doing it and if you stop doing it will that stop you being so autistic(!) and yes this is people I work with and this was because I like everything ordered on my desk, I have had comments such as - but you can’t be autistic you are good at your job (?) various OH reports have suggested the workplace need to do more training on inclusivity and ND understanding but so far nothing has happened.

Oh and I did fill in the form for distance etc but Q1 was what is your name Q2 was are you disabled Q3 what days do you work and so on…. So I would probably still have got a parking allocation one on distance. It was more the email saying ‘you aren’t disabled, or have any disabilities - HR say you aren’t and have no disabilities etc can you prove you are disabled or have disabilities’ which when you have repeatedly given them in writing to HR and done OH assessments that say you aren’t it felt overwhelming yesterday! Sorry!

I braved a fear and went to see someone face to face which is hard for me! I am usually pretty silent at work and just get my job done even if it means like tonight I didn’t get home until 7.30 pm but at 55 please don’t tell me to change the anxiety and social overwhelm as I can’t.

Many thanks to all the posters who were supportive and did get it they were helpful