It's now harder to get through the Blue Badge assessment than it is to get through the PIP one.

2oldcodgers

For both you have to send in your evidence to support your claim. Yet for a PIP claim any assessment is either carried out via a telephone call or based entirely on the claim form and evidence only.
Then why do Blue Badge applicants have to send in similar information and evidence yet are forced to undergo a face to face assessment with an assessor if their situation is that they are not entitled to a BB automatically?

It doesn't make any sense to me.

surfygoose

I didn’t have a face to face assessment and I wasn’t entitled automatically because I don’t have the 10 points exactly in moving around. Pip 12 points for planning and following a journey doesn’t automatically qualify me but we sent all my evidence (we filled in the form online and took photos of evidence and uploaded them), and they just replied saying thank you and then that they were sending me a blue badge. That may have changed recently though or we may have been lucky, I don’t know.

OverlyAnxious

They are different awards run by different organisations.  Blue badge access differs massively across the country.

I managed to get a Blue Badge through email communications.  I had no way to get to the centre for a physical assessment and I can't speak on phones.  (I will now auto-qualify for the renewal since my PIP award change).

poppy123456

Not everyone that doesn't automatically qualify has to have a face to face assessment. All LA have their own rules outside of automatically qualifying.

2oldcodgers

poppy123456 said:

Not everyone that doesn't automatically qualify has to have a face to face assessment. All LA have their own rules outside of automatically qualifying.

That is a surprise. You probably know the history of what my wife has been through in the past with multiple face to face assessments (questions and answers given) + a physical assessments of how she walked and the distance she could walk which was carried out on an empty floor of a local multistory car park. 
Unfortunately at 80 she is unable to qualify for PIP although she does get the highest AA award mainly due to being unable to physically move around much even from the bed to the toilet.

So we live in the 'wrong' county then - what a shame.

poppy123456

Don't know why it's surprised you. There's been many members on here that have be awarded a BB without an assessment, when they didn't automatically qualify.

Yes, i'm aware of the problems your wife had. Strangly, we had another member here who's wife had exactly the same issue and also had their face to face assessments in a multi story car park.

2oldcodgers

poppy123456 said:

Don't know why it's surprised you. There's been many members on here that have be awarded a BB without an assessment, when they didn't automatically qualify.

Yes, i'm aware of the problems your wife had. Strangly, we had another member here who's wife had exactly the same issue and also had their face to face assessments in a multi story car park.

Strange.
To test this out once and for all this weekend I will again complete another BB online application for my wife, enclose a photo, submit the AA award letter and other medical evidence. 

Alex_Alumni

If your local authority's criteria and procedures around awarding blue badges haven't changed since last time @2oldcodgers, then I'd be weary of your wife needing to undertake a face to face assessment again.

Have you spoken with your wife about whether she would want to put through another application? From my own experience I know they can be quite taxing.

2oldcodgers

Alex_Scope said:

If your local authority's criteria and procedures around awarding blue badges haven't changed since last time @2oldcodgers, then I'd be weary of your wife needing to undertake a face to face assessment again.

Have you spoken with your wife about whether she would want to put through another application? From my own experience I know they can be quite taxing.

I certainly have, and she is in full agreement. She is more annoyed at the system than anything else. She cannot understand why she is always refused one despite having the full day and night AA award for life due entirely to being unable to move from the bed to the toilet once/twice a night as well as her inability to walk more than say 20 metres on her own outside without help.