Blue Badge.... Given by one council, taken away by another???

[Eliza22]

My son has a blue badge. He gets high rate care and low rate mobility of DLA. He has autism and OCD. I was so relieved to get the badge in 2009 as I'd notched up a long list of parking tickets on even the briefest of outings from our home. Herefordshire council originally said "no" then after a consult (on the phone! ) with a doctor, he was given one. I'd not attempt to get my son my son out of the house, at all, without it. He's 11. Tall and skinny and impossible to carry.

Had to reapply in Cheshire as it runs out in May. They've refused. There's not medical person on the review panel just a "Customer Services Manager" who deals with appeals.

I'm terrified. When I say that my son is crippled by his OCD and can walk, shufflinglyonly for short distances, will out of anxiety refuse to get out of the car (not a strop.....FEAR) I'm not jesting. We don't use it much as his condition leaves us totally isolated in our home. He has no friends and despite having one to one at school, full time, he needs constant supervision because of self harm issues.

Apparently, he is not "disabled" enough. And they don't consider he has a lifelong condition

I'm in tears and can't bear the idea of another bloody fight. We've already lost a lot of support, thanks to David Cameron's cutbacks. Anyone have experience of this?

Eliza it was the same for us with my DS and his ASD. I ended up getting my DLA reassessed. We had our middle rate for Care and LR for Mobility bumped up to HR for both.
My friend's son's ASD is worse than my son's (though he is pretty bad), she was given DLA HR for both as she argued successfully that his issues for both care and mobility were because his ASD is a mental impairment. She now has the blue badge. Mine is being processed now.

I think that by the sound of things your DLA needs to be reassessed. Cerebra website is the best place I found for help in making my case for DLA HR Mobility. Once you get the HR Mobility you get the Blue Badge. The problem is that unless he was blind, had no physical way of walking, i.e. no legs the LA won't give you a blue badge as they don't recognise ASD and OCD as physical disabilities.

1. Autism is a lifelong condition
2. Autism has a physical cause (brain impairment)- use the info from DLA guidance on being virtually unable to walk - there is an example in it about someone with autism who refuses to walk - Councils are supposed to use similar guidance to DWP for DLA
3. NAS has a link to the law on its page about blue badges which just says have to have permanent disability which causes considerable difficulty with walking.

Sorry to hear this Eliza - I would appeal and do as Sallybear suggests with DLA. I am at the last stage of the appeal process before the sub committee in my area (we do not have DLA HR although we are presently having our DS's DLA reassessed to try and include mobility which I did not originally apply for wrongly thinking it did not apply to autism). Our appeal for blue badge has been adjourned for the sub committee to obtain more legal advice and for me to obtain further medical evidence. I have got a further report from my GP which was more specific (cost £25) which I hope will do the trick. The legal point was over a couple of cases I mentioned which confirmed that autism was a physical disability - I also used some words that hinted at judicially reviewing them as they seemed to imply that they had no power to approve a blue badge for autism which is wrong as a matter of public law. The appeal will be heard again in mid May. Good luck to you.

Definitely appeal. Just get some medical evidence to back your case.

I've been into this in depth recently in my work context (building new offices and I need to provide disbaled parking).

Some councils will not issue Blue Badge unless you've been awarded DLA HR Mobility. This is wrong.

Disabled parking and therefore the means to use it i.e. the Blue Badege must be issued on the basis of need.

There is no compulsion for a disbaled person to calim DLA anyway - so you could have severe disabilities that obviously qualify for disabled parking yet because you're not claiming DLA you shouldn't be disbarred from a Blue Badge.

Similarly, DLA cannot be claimed for the first 3? months. So you could be severely disbaled yet waiting for an initial DLA award. In the interim you may need a Blue Badge.

I managed to get a Blue Badge from our council for someone who had severe difficulties in walking but who had never heard of DLA!!!

So - appeal. Threaten them with a disability tribunal if necessary.

Thanks all of you for your input and encouragement. I only received the letter yesterday having had a particularly distressing incident whilst staying with my sister and trying to encourage my son out of the house for a brief period. He was shuffling down the road flanked by me and his 24 yr old cousin. People were looking at him and finding him highly amusing in his odd behaviour and he was getting more and more distressed and more "autistic" and in the end, we kind of huddled around him into the swimming centre.

Every day is a battle. I am heartbroken by my sons high functioning autism being floored by the OCD/Tourette's thing. I guess, I can't bear the thought of battling all over again whenim at a near suicidal ebb. Watching ds's deterioration is so painful.

We only had DLA reassessed last year and that was a fight. I guess, I did well then, to get the Blue Badge when we don't get high rate mobility. I have a friend who's little girl does require a wheelchair, not all the time but periodically. She rightly has a blue badge but when having me struggle with ds, she has commented that her own child's lack of mobility is "a walk in the park", pardon the pun, by comparison.

Sorry, that comment about my friend should have read...."having seen me struggle"

DLA is a great idea but will take a while. In the meantime you might try, no particular order: a face-to-face meeting with the responsible official (who will therefore [evil grin emoticon] will need to help you get DS from the car and into the town hall); an appointment with your local councillor; a letter to tge head of children's services asking for a revised 'child in need' assessment taking into account your change in circumstance of no longer having access to any accessible transport.

The local councillor idea is great. Don't forget that it's local elections in May.

I second contacting your Local Councillor.

I've done this many times and he has achieved results.

Too many people ignore this route but 'they work for us'.

Saw my MP last year who told me there was a lot of stuff aimed at disabled children in our area. I agreed with him..... Providing your disability wasn't autism, OCD and Tourette's. My ds's crippling anxiety means that he cannot go more than 20 seconds/steps without his litany without of apologies/checks/physical self punishment.

He helped me to get aiming high payments which provided a specialist autism outreach service to help my ds to socialise. Sadly, as good as the man was, he failed to get my son over the doorstep. The funding has now finished. The specialist autism outreach service has stopped.

My son is medicated. I delayed medication for as long as I could. I thought the worst thing was having to medicated my child. I was wrong. The WORST THING is putting him on (now 4 different types) of medication AND IT DOESN'T WORK! Nothing works. Hes had 18 months of CBT but that's just been discontinued because he "can't access" it.

I think, as someone said, that if I could meet and talk with someone, I could put a good case forward. The appeal process (firstly) is written. I will rout school (ds has full time one to one, and despite that I HAVE TO ATTEND OUT OF SCHOOL VISITS JUST TO GET HIM THROUGH IT), the senco, his Consultant Psychiatrist, his (now) ex-CBT counsellor.

I am, in short, bloody furious. I never lose my temper but the past ten years has been me justifying my sons needs/condition and I'm sick to death of it.

A lot of people think that contacting their MP is the right thing to do.

It isn't always so.

Local issues, such as education, parking permits etc are things where responsibility has been delegated by Central Govt to Local Govt.

You local Councillor is your best bet when trying to get local issues addressed.

If you're taliking about Central issues, such as Defence or Health then your MP is the best route.

You just need to differentiate between the 2.

Thanks WETAUGUST.

I know I just have to " go through it all" again.