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Disability Parking Permits for Hidden Disabilities

larnny

Hi there!

I just saw this headline on the BBC and wondered how I would find out more about this criteria? Is it different for every local council or does one rule apply for all of them?

Thanks

larny

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Comments

Yadnad

cripps said:

This is disgraceful!!! A blue badge is for disabled people that can’t walk any other disability should not even be considered. NC

Unfortunately comments like that border on the line of disability discrimination

jw0957

jw0957 said:

Hi, l have just seen the great news about the mentally disabled and hidden disabled who qualify for a blue badge. What about those who don't qualify but have various health problems as well as a physical disability?? I am one of those people who have a physical disability and need to use a walking stick, but because I don't have 12 points for PIP I don't qualify for a blue badge. When will those rules change for others like me??

jw0957

I would just like to update about my application for a blue badge. After advice from the community l applied for and, was awarded a blue badge. I’m relieved to say that it wasn’t all bad answering the questions or being assessed to qualify. Thanks so much to everyone who gave advice, lm much obliged ?

atlas46

jw0957 said:

I would just like to update about my application for a blue badge. After advice from the community l applied for and, was awarded a blue badge. I’m relieved to say that it wasn’t all bad answering the questions or being assessed to qualify. Thanks so much to everyone who gave advice, lm much obliged ?

Hi @jw0957

That is great news for you and well done.

Thank you for taking the time to update the community on your positive outcome.

It will give encouragement to others in similar situations.

DavidJ

Mikehughescq .
I am finding it very difficult reading your comments ! You must live in a different world to me !!
First of all to anyone out there reading this I wish you no harm or malice and I would never question someone’s blue badge .
I just cannot believe you wrote what you did !!
Of course this is going to trigger more fraud and cause problems with accessible parking spaces !! I must have missed something when you say that they are not disabled parking spaces ! You know the ones I mean . Yes the ones with the international wheelchair sign on the ground and the yellow strips around them . They usually have a sign as well indicating blue badge holders only! Of course the space isn’t disabled , but it is for disabled use by a person with a blue badge.
I certainly disagree with you regarding fraud !! It can be seen every day somewhere and is more likely to be abused by an individual not an organised crime syndicate ! Although I am sure they do .
I am a wheelchair user and I have no choice where I park but quite often there are no bays available . I don’t begrudge anyone who is entitled to a badge to have one and use it the same as I do . However what galls me the most is following some of the people who park in disabled bays around a supermarket and going up one aisle and down another several times until they finished shopping. They then stand in the queue for a few minutes and then become disabled again when they go out to their car having walked 400/500 metres around the shop .
The new rules will create difficulties for all of us as there is no law to make any business provide more spaces!
I find it extremely difficult to come to terms with your under occupation of said bays !! Maybe where you live but not here or in the city . It’s very hard to park in a lot of places during the day no matter which shops or businesses you frequent .
I think I can guarantee problems from day one because it’s only lip service . No one really cares what you or I think . Sorry for being cynical but my view from my wheelchair must be different to yours my friend !!!

DavidJ

mikehughescq
Thanks mike for your reply . I cannot argue with any of it . You are obviously well schooled which some of us aren’t so mere wording is just that . As I said I am not knocking anyone it’s just that we are all different and have different abilities and disabilities .
You have obviously done your homework on this whereas I am commenting on what I see .
I too have a B.B. and large Motability vehicle and have difficulty wherever I go . With the changes coming into play it’s definitely going to be more difficult for all of us .
Yes I do understand and see why you would take offence . So would I as I too have to lie down and stay home for a couple of days after going shopping, and I have a wheelchair .
I also wear a hi-vis “invisibility “ coat so that I can enter and leave shops etc unnoticed .
I get the impression that you are still working and probably have a far better insight of disability than I do and I applaud you for it .
As for me I am unable to work and would now be well retired anyway so maybe my perception of what I see is more cynical being an old man
I find myself agreeing with you on the local authorities as some of them really are a joke when it comes to B.B. fraud. It could be an area that funding has dried up for I don’t know.
Its like going into a supermarket cafe and finding that the disabled designated tables are taken up with older people or wheelies . They don’t understand that there is no rim on a designated table in order to get a wheelchair in ! I have given up trying to explain that they can sit anywhere ! Or again that might just be sour grapes on my part .
Whilst we both have different views on the same issues we are not that far apart and there is nothing as queer as folk !
live long and prosper

Yadnad

DavidJ said:

Mikehughescq .
I am finding it very difficult reading your comments ! You must live in a different world to me !!
First of all to anyone out there reading this I wish you no harm or malice and I would never question someone’s blue badge .
I just cannot believe you wrote what you did !!
Of course this is going to trigger more fraud and cause problems with accessible parking spaces !! I must have missed something when you say that they are not disabled parking spaces ! You know the ones I mean . Yes the ones with the international wheelchair sign on the ground and the yellow strips around them . They usually have a sign as well indicating blue badge holders only! Of course the space isn’t disabled , but it is for disabled use by a person with a blue badge.
I certainly disagree with you regarding fraud !! It can be seen every day somewhere and is more likely to be abused by an individual not an organised crime syndicate ! Although I am sure they do .
I am a wheelchair user and I have no choice where I park but quite often there are no bays available . I don’t begrudge anyone who is entitled to a badge to have one and use it the same as I do . However what galls me the most is following some of the people who park in disabled bays around a supermarket and going up one aisle and down another several times until they finished shopping. They then stand in the queue for a few minutes and then become disabled again when they go out to their car having walked 400/500 metres around the shop .
The new rules will create difficulties for all of us as there is no law to make any business provide more spaces!
I find it extremely difficult to come to terms with your under occupation of said bays !! Maybe where you live but not here or in the city . It’s very hard to park in a lot of places during the day no matter which shops or businesses you frequent .
I think I can guarantee problems from day one because it’s only lip service . No one really cares what you or I think . Sorry for being cynical but my view from my wheelchair must be different to yours my friend !!!

In my area (which borders a large city in the South East) there are three, sorry four supermarkets all within a couple of miles of each other. My wife has a blue badge (I don't any longer due to the loss of my PIP) anyhow, I, she never has a problem finding a bay for the disabled driver on any day, at any time , in any of the car parks. So it must be a hit or miss situation.
Tesco's is the best by far - whole rows maybe 80/100+ spaces by the front of the shop are for blue badge holders
Sorry I forgot to add. Kent based on those figures is a truly law abiding county with just 6 BB's being reported as stolen and no prosecutions.
I would add that yes fraud does happen even if it is daughter shopping for mum who is at home in bed and using mum's BB for convenience sake. Then we have our well known villainous family who have, amongst the many cars they own, a Range Rover and not wanting to get it scratched whilst shopping would park it on double yellow lines around Canterbury or in a bay reserved for BB holders They proudly display the BB which incidentally belongs to his mother who died in 2016!

Peasmold_01

[content removed by moderator]

Mental Health, under the Law Lords ruling of last year, mental health has now be considered when assessing the mobility element of PIP. I know two poor souls who have mental health issues, and (a) use a blue badge (2) park in disabled parking bays. The reason, their partners can ensure that they do not wander off across the Supermarket car park. Not every disability is visible, as I imagine not all of Cripps disabilities are visible.

(Humans are the only animals that blush, or need to!)

newborn

@ As misscleo and others say, it may be fine to hand out double the badges, but will there be double the bays?

But, I think the general public will be confused and angry, and their goodwill and protectiveness will be eroded. Many do respect the bays.

They won't park there themselves, and are quick to challenge others. Of course, that makes a problem for the invisibly disabled, but I would urge them to keep the goodwill, even at the trivial cost of getting hold of a walking stick to use when shopping , just to send a simple signal the public comprehend.

Instead, throwing in the words 'invisible disability' will, I predict, result in a backlash. We need public goodwill. Some of us need to park right near the door.

I have long opposed the wheel symbol. It makes no logical sense. People can and do, rightly or wrongly, think that wheelchair users are Olympic athletes, or pushed by carers, like babies in a buggy, or using electric power, so they could park wherever there is a space, exactly like anyone else.

(And THAT, of course, is why private car park and traffic management teams mark out spaces on the wrong side of the road, if at all, and medical services ensure the car parking is exclusively for staff, and why a premises manager will instruct builders to put their skip in the disabled bay for a few weeks, or the town planner will think 2 bays, or none, for the entire population, is about right provision for a high street)

A better symbol would be a stylised outline depicting someone hunched over a zimmer frame. That would show WHY such people cannot park on the far side of the car park.

I have also long opposed free or cheap parking in blue badge bays. That is why car windows are smashed and badges stolen and a section of the public is resentful.

Consider what would happen if instead, there was a modest extra premium for these prime spaces ( right next to destination, as a result of the symbol being a zimmer frame) and with the entitlement to a somewhat longer stay ( to allow for the fact a mobility impaired sticks, crutches or walking frame user will usually require extra time to complete the same task as a t.a.b. (temporarily able bodied)).

The general public would not be envious or enraged or full of spite to 'cripples'. They wouldn't be jealous or have any incentive to use the bays. If they could park further away, and walk (o-r unload a battery scooter) then they would go in the standard price bays.

It wouldn't be worth stealing or misusing a badge which merely 'entitled' a t.a.b. to pay extra for parking.

The only difficult is the bay size. But again, the use of a premium charge for a larger space, wherever it is in the car park, would mean there will be more incentive to provide them. People with enormous cars would have to pay. People with modest cars, but a need to open the door wide, would too. But the general public would avoid them, leaving spaces available when disabled people arrive.

Yes, disabled people, like older people, are often on low incomes, but there is no direct correlation, so the better remedy would be to attend to pensioner poverty in this, the worst country in the world to be a state pensioner, and to disability poverty.

The remedy for any poverty is not, is really not, to hand out random patronising freebies, which are useless to many, and pointless for some.

newborn

The ignorance regarding parking rules includes the police. A man drove his builders van to a supermarket blue badge space, ran in, soon began an argument with the cashier, then a fight with a customer, then with the police, who, surprisingly, didn't wish to arrest or reprimand him.

One of the cashiers pointed out to them he was in the disabled bay, and they replied they knew, but it was all right, he was entitled to park, because he had told them the badge was in his pocket, and had been issued to his mother.

zacthezebra

jw0957 said:

I would just like to update about my application for a blue badge. After advice from the community l applied for and, was awarded a blue badge. I’m relieved to say that it wasn’t all bad answering the questions or being assessed to qualify. Thanks so much to everyone who gave advice, lm much obliged ?

That is great news being awarded a blue badge made a huge difference to me all the best zac

Topkitten

I have been unable to read so many comments so please excuse anything that is already covered.

To begin with I have yet to find ANY large building or group of that provides disabled bays within 50 meters (the DLA decision on limited walking distance) and so there is little point in any person able to walk from there to the destination being allowed to use them. In my opinion the main reason for using them is the larger size allowing the person to be gotten into or out of the car when they NEED to use a wheelchair or scooter. To say that a walking person should be able to use them is not right as it means that a wheelchair person cannot park AT ALL when they are full and there are never enough now.

The abuse of them is atrocious with people using someone else's badge and also people who have no badge at all. Very few are ever monitored or checked as the car parks are privately owned and the rule of the disabled person concerned being with the driver never enforced.

For people who can walk, often there are normal spaces closer so why clog up disabled ones? Mostly, it seems, it is jealousy over the special treatment in either having a larger space (most people cannot park well) or using double yellows legally. I once had a Mercedes driver have a real go at me for using mine on double yellows simply because it meant his illegal parking behind me left part of his car sticking out and at risk of being damaged. The guy was completely pathetic and even my mum (who was with me) who never says anything to anyone even when they are wrong, got out of the car and had a right go at him for being so stupid. I thought she was actually going to hit him at one point, lol!

Anyway, I see no reason to allow more users of an already overburdened system except for a few very special cases. It is mostly out of selfishness that so many problems already occur, no point making things worse.

TK

thespiceman

Hello every body I think this discussion on blue badges is becoming too painful to read. I know there are members of our community contributing on this passionate issues.

At the end we are only inflaming matters. I said my piece my concern is the changes have to be for all to be excepted.

My concern and caring attitude is that I feel those want to go out not be targeted by their own community. Showing lack of respect from all parties. Understanding how this is going to be a problem.

I understand if you read what is going to happen is happening already. The lack of availability of spaces those in need. Do we need to be compassionate to each other.

Reason my mental health is suffering is the hostility of members of my own community. Knocking on my window in ASDA car parking pleading for a space for his son who is in a wheelchair. He parked at the side of the car park blocking others trying to exit.

Do I as a human being want to see that no I do not. So had to say the gentleman concerned. I will remove my car to another part of the store. Yet I have problems walking but there again. I am acutely aware of others who would not move.

Having to decide now to not go out to shopping places anywhere. Do we policing of disabled bays then is that a situation.? Are we as a society prepared to do this and make it a issue.? Acceptance of others disability. We want a accessible society for all. Not inaccessibility.

I recall one time. Aldi I believe in one store a guy out the front policing the car park. This was because of number of limited spaces. TESCO has loads but it is a issue for the community. To help and support each other. Do we need to be fighting each other and start to support and encompass every body point of view on this issue.

By being respectable and being pleasant. More and more of our community will be issued blue badges in the years to come. We have the opportunity to change we as a community are seen and to be out there .

It all helps to give the cause or calling we have to just for once be in unison. Understanding those in our community who do not want change. Then that is there view and opinion.

I want to go forward as one community and put our views and opinions as a community together in harmony.

Besides after all is it worth it a blue badge. there are other more important things in life.

We have the technology to do so many things with out going out.

Thank you

@thespiceman

livonia

A lot of earlier posters are frankly quite hostile. I’m a hidden disability claimant. I do have mobility issues but can walk due to my anxiety I decided not to apply to my local authority as I would struggle with more tests and face to face contact. I probably could have appealed and got higher mobility but decided to be grateful for what I got as the whole process affected me deeply. I’ve walked down stairs and left a lift for wheelchair users as yu do feel guilty as I don’t look immediately disabled . The fatigue is however crippling. Next year I may qualify it seems for a blue badge. I feel fearful to use. We do live in an increasingly judgmental and cruel environment which is very sad

Topkitten

@mikehughescq, you misunderstood my point. I am referring to completely healthy people shopping alone or with other healthy people or children and using a BB of someone they know or care for. This is completely against the rules of use. The disabled person MUST be in the vehicle, whether they leave it or not, to use a blue badge in a disabled space or on double yellow lines.. However, some people (my sister included) will ask to borrow a BB as it's more convenient. This type of usage, if reported, will cause the loss of the BB altogether and therefore punish not the user but the disabled person that needs it..

My sister only asked once and I was rather forceful with a negative reply, lol!

TK

The disabled person MUST be in the vehicle, whether they leave it or not, to use a blue badge in a disabled space or on double yellow lines..

the badge is only meant to be used when the disabled person leaves the vehicle. If they’re staying in the car there is no need for a disabled bay. Although I’m sure that isn’t policed often.

JazCo

I'm quite disgusted by some of the comments here. The list of hidden disabilities included where lupus, arthritis, cancer, autism etc.

You have to consider someone having a panic attack may need to be close to their mode of transport to get themselves out of a potentially dangerous situation. This is not just about parking at shops. It's about giving people who cannot travel by other means than a car to be able to go to all places as easily as those who travel can travel via public transport. City centres have extremely bad parking abilities. Those with severe anxiety or other hidden disabilities would potentially be denied the ability to go to these places without some leeway on parking.

To say these people should be denied this inclusion because some people may abuse this is no different from the DWP making cuts to disability benefits because the odd few abuse it - its discriminatory and over reaching. And to blame the regular people who suffer is just nasty. The council have a duty to accommodate via more disabled parking spaces and through a thorough but fair vetting process.

newborn

@pin, thanks, it's hard to understand why people think "it must be OK for me to park in a bb place, because gran has a badge, and she is in the car".......so, having her in the car affects your own legs, does it?

Even harder to understand people thinking "I'm ģoing to the shops, and maybe I'll pick up something on gran's behalf, therefore I can use her badge, because carrying a prescription for her will affect my own legs, so I will become incapable of walking from the nearest non-reserved space"

Yes, I don’t understand that mentality. It’s covered in the accompanying leaflet as not being acceptable too.