aibu to want to apply for a blue badge?

[jumpingpillows]

I have a condition that when it flares up results in hospital admitiobs and time off work. I find it hard to walk at all when bad. And even talking is hard. However when I am good I can go to the gym. Swim and appear "normal"

I don't want to apply for money but a blue badge would mean I was able to work more when recovering from a bad patch and mean I could rely on others less.

I would obviously only use it when bad.

Can you get one where you have a condition that is changeable?

YANBU, but unfortunately, fluctuating conditions don't qualify. The difficulty has to be permanent and you have to qualify for Personal Independence Payment mobility element at 8 points or more for 'getting around'.

Really? That is utterly shit.

My condition is unlikely to ever go away, and has been getting progressively worse. I fear I will end up jobless as I struggle to manage but if I could park closer it would certainly help. :( Am 28 and this only came about in the last 3 years.

I'm wondering the same thing. Currently on maternity leave I can moderate what I do but when at work ill be sent where needed rather than have a choice over whether I do it today.
I've been on crutches for 3 years and used a wheelchair for 3 months but I still didn't qualify last time I enquired as I was supposed to get better when baby was born.

I applied for a blue badge and my doctor was reluctant to say it was permanent so it was only issued for a year.
However I didn't get better so the next one was for 3 years.

Are some councils stricter than others?

Op you don't need to qualify for pip or dla that just gives you automatic entitlement .

I think you should apply. My friend has MS which is variable but she has a blue badge. You don't need to be on DLA either (as someone else said, higher rate DLA just gives automatic entitlement). Just fill in the form. You've got nothing to lose and it could really benefit you when you're going through a bad patch. My blue badge helps me stay in work :)

Yes higher rate DLA or PIP gives you an automatic badge but you can still fill in the form and get one anyway. Its very long but theres a space to list hospital admissions and all medication etc, so the condition being variable shouldnt matter. I put down about the badge helping me stay in work as well which I think they may take into consideration. Apply, it makes such a difference having the badge.

Higher rate PIP only gets you a blue badge if the points come from the 'mobility' sub-element, not the 'getting around' sub-element. So a person who can walk 100-200 metres before severe discomfort and needs supervision and guidance when out, may get enhanced PIP but will not qualify automatically for a blue badge. A person scoring the same number of points purely in the 'mobility' element, will get the enhanced PIP and automatic qualification for a blue badge.

There might be other solutions Jumingpillow.

Access to Work provides funds to support disabled people in work. For example they paid for 50 taxi journeys per year to and from work, They offered to pay everyday but as I have a flutuating condition I didn't work it.

In one workplace there were a handful of car parking spaces (6 spaces for a couple of hundred staff and there was a booking system). Under the DDA, my employer made one of thses available to me as a reasonable adjustment. I didn't have a blue badge, just the organisation to give a little help.

Maybe neither of these are solutions for you, but it's worth thinking out of the box.

Oh and... regarding the taxis... there was only a loading bay as a pull in place to drop me close to the door. The taxi company started getting tickets and cos I didn't have a blue badge they couldn't park there. I provided my Access to Work letter to the Council and they turned a blind eye to that taxi company parking there. There are always out of box solutions.

RS

Thanks for that post Rainbows, it may help me too.

I just wanted to add that you don't have to get PIP or DLA to qualify for a blue badge. I now have one. I didn't qualify automatically and had to have an assessment. My condition also fluctuates, though from bad to worse - I walk permanently with pain and a limp. Here's my thread describing my assessment. It's worth a try, jumping.

I think the problem I have is that so many people have blue badges so very rarely there are free spaces. I went to asda today and out of about 50 disabled spaces there was 3 free. I am a wheelchair user and I think I saw one other person in a chair in there! I know there are invisible disabilities but as far as I'm concerned if you can walk round the biggest asda in Europe you really don't need a blue badge!

I see your point paragirl, and in fact go to small shops and supermarkets for exactly that reason - the distances involved in going to the bigger ones are just too much for me.

However, I have had a couple of occasions when I just had no choice: once at Christmas and once on my son's birthday... I am a single parent and sometimes there is no-one else to go shopping for me and nowhere else that sells what I need. In these two cases I dosed myself up with painkillers, went to get what I needed, put up with the pain and exhaustion, and did nothing else for the next day or two. You already know that some disabilities are invisible, but it's worth remembering that pain is invisible too.

I do think that at least if someone is getting a benefit like DLA or PIP that entitles them to a blue badge then it's restricted to people that need them and there is some sort of limit to how many they give out.
I'm not sure of the criteria of how to get a blue badge if you don't get high rate mobility. I suppose it's down to the individual council.

No, it's a national scheme and there are national conditions you must meet to qualify.
The details are here. Basically, you must be either unable to walk completely, or "unable to walk very far without experiencing very considerable difficulty. This may include excessive pain and breathlessness, or a deterioration of health brought on by the effort needed to walk".

mine fluctuates...i have "flares" and i have a blue badge...hth