Blue badge farce

Freedom1

My partner holds an 'ongoing pip' letter and has 12 points in the moving around part. She received her pip in 2016 and it states on her letter that she will not be contacted again until 2026. As her blue badge is now soon to expire she needed to renew it. She sent all the documentation through including the scans of her pip document and after around 8 weeks has been told that her renewal has been put on hold due to her pip being out of date. How an earth can her pip be out of date when it covers from 2016-2026? She got very distressed on the phone trying to explain to the council blue badge  department which brought on her spasms and made her unwell. It states online if you receive 8 points or more in the moving around you automatically qualify. Plus her PIP award letter is for 10 years and is classed as 'Ongoing' I feel this is discusting behaviour towards people with a disability. Instead of helping these new rules are causing so much unnecessary extra stress. 

Chloe_Alumni

Hi @Freedom1 and a very warm welcome to the community! I unfortunately am in the same position.

My PIP doesn't run out until 2021 but because the letter is from more than 6 months ago they are not accepting it. I am in the process of ringing DWP to be sent a current letter.

If you do this it should have a more recent date on it and therefore the blue badge application will accept it.

I really hope you manage to get this sorted soon as I understand how stressful it is!

wilko

I have just renewed my blue badge no trouble a three year award expires 2021 as long as I have a confirmation award letter showing my award and the points paper all ok

exdvr

@Freedom1,

It's not a farce, it's a safeguard.  My local authority needs to see a confirmation of PIP which is less than 2 years old. I know it's highly unlikely in your case but it is one way of preventing fraud if PIP has been revoked for any reason. A quick phone call is all it takes and you should receive a current statement in a few days.

Stay calm.

poppy123456

When i renewed my last blue badge my local council wanted a PIP award letter that was dated within the last year. As others have said, it will take just a few days to receive another letter which will be recently dated. Once you send this to your local council the will issue the badge within days.

April2018mom

I contacted my local council. They dealt with my application and answered my questions. 

poppy123456

April2018mom said:

I contacted my local council. They dealt with my application and answered my questions. 

That's not possible here because the person needs a new PIP award letter with a recent date on it. Once this is sent then the application will be processed.

airbusA346

I had this issue when renewing my blue badge in December.  They needed a letter dated within the last 12 months, but my award letter is from 2017 and runs till 2021.  I ended up sending them the latest PIP payment increase letter, which they accepted.

Freedom1

We contacted DWP to send out a new letter. Took around 10 days to arrive. Have now added this to her application and waiting for result.
I still believe if someone has a disability for life there shouldn't need to be this extra hassle. The original letter should stand. Hoping it gets processed OK now ASAP as her old badge runs out this week.

poppy123456

It has to be a recently dated award letter because anything can change within this time and that award may not still exist for various reasons. It's exactly the same for everything you're claiming, not just a blue badge.

It generally doesn't take long for them to process the claim once they have everything that's needed. Do be aware that if the new blue badge hasn't been received by the time the current one expires then you won't be able to use it. This happened to me when i last renewed mine, i couldn't use the old one while i waited. Annoying yes, but unfortunately, that's the rules.