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Renewing a Blue Badge

Yadnad

Not having any disability based benefit myself (70) apart from IIDB, my wife (75) receives the highest rate for Attendance Allowance indefinitely.
I am aware that neither gives automatic entitlement for a Blue Badge so there is no point in referring to/sending those documents to the council
I am not so bothered about myself as we have no car and I have given up with driving but do still have my full licence should I need it for emergency purposes (not really fit to drive due to medication and disabilities).

My wife borrows either of our daughters' cars (or their respective husbands') if the need arises.
My wife did have a Blue Badge which ran out about 4 weeks ago which I am contemplating having it renewed.
Nothing has changed regarding her mobility problems over the past 3 years since the badge was originally issued..

I have a few questions .

(1) As she no longer has a valid badge does it make any difference if she makes a new application without reference to her old badge? Or must she disclose that she previously had one?

(2) What evidence is needed for this new badge? Social Services provided a letter last time following an assessment of her needs - they also sent in a full report to the DWP for her AA some years back - 2011 I think.

I have printed off the full application form and to be honest it is about as bad as the PIP2 form. I am so confused what I should be putting on it. Her previous form was completed with the help of Social Services (Welfare) but unfortunately they no longer exist. Social Services have told her to see CAB but to be honest my experience of that local bunch is poor. AgeUK no longer have a welfare worker either.

For me I just feel like putting the form in the WPB and forgetting about the whole thing as it is so daunting.

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Comments

wilko

Hi Yadnad,I would phone your blue bade team at your local council who issues the badges and explain your predicament over the delay in renewing your wife badge and make an enquiry as to what is required as evidence for her renewal ect. Good luck.

exdvr

Hi @Yadnad,

You and/or your wife should apply under the heading of discretionary criteria where your situation will be assessed independently whether or not you're on benefits.

Below is taken from my local council website...hope it helps.

Discretionary criteria

You may also be eligible for a badge if you are more than two years old and meet one of the following criteria:

you have a permanent and substantial disability which means you are unable to walk, or virtually unable to walk
you are unable to walk, or virtually unable to walk because of a temporary but substantial disability which is likely to last for a period of at least 12 months but less than 3 years

If you are applying for a badge under the above criteria you will need to show that you are unable to walk or virtually unable to walk very far without experiencing excessive pain and breathlessness, or a deterioration of health brought on by the effort needed to walk.

Yadnad

exdvr said:

You may also be eligible for a badge if you are more than two years old and meet one of the following criteria:
you have a permanent and substantial disability which means you are unable to walk, or virtually unable to walk
you are unable to walk, or virtually unable to walk because of a temporary but substantial disability which is likely to last for a period of at least 12 months but less than 3 years
If you are applying for a badge under the above criteria you will need to show that you are unable to walk or virtually unable to walk very far without experiencing excessive pain and breathlessness, or a deterioration of health brought on by the effort needed to walk.

Thanks, that is where I am up to.
My wife can explain verbally how and why walking is extremely difficult for her including how breathless she becomes. But expressing that on a form is beyond both of us. That is the very same reason why I have always had major problems with my old PIP claims - the inability to describe what the impact was and why it happened in such a way that my 'story' painted a 'picture' in the mind of the DWP.
As I have said there are no decent or available services that can help her fill out the form.
More importantly neither of us know what evidence the council will need in order to substantiate any claim made. We both have a dislike for hospitals and the medical profession. In the past both of us,, one way or another have been 'forced' to have interventions in hospital etc. The last was just a few years ago when my wife started to have breathing problems at night. She was admitted into hospital with pulmonary oedema. That stay lasted just a couple of days before she got herself dressed telling the nurses that she was discharging herself!

We can struggle to fill out the form but have no idea how to prove the difficulties she faces daily. I think I have already mentioned that her previous Blue Badge was awarded after intervention by Social Services (Welfare) in 2015. That department no longer exists due to the cuts in funding.