Parking Concessions for People with Disabilities
The Blue (Disabled) Badge Scheme offers holders of the card some parking concessions. Unfortunately though, the rules vary somewhat from area to area within the UK. This can make the scheme unnecessarily difficult to understand. The advice I have to hand is printed by the Scottish Government but should hold true in most areas. Please check locally though!
Where Do I Get One and Do I Qualify?
Each Local Authority administers its own Blue Badges. So the place to start is your local council. It shouldn’t be too difficult to get in touch with them and request an application form.
At the moment, each card is issued at the discretion of the Local Authority where you live. The only definite qualifiers are if you receive the Higher Rate of the Mobility Component of DLA or you receive a War Pensioners’ Mobility Supplement. If you don’t receive either of these benefits then you will need to present evidence to your Local Authority according to their application process. However, the Blue Badge Scheme is designed to help disabled people that:
- Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr
- Have a permanent and substantial disability that makes it very difficult to walk or can’t walk at all.
- Have a temporary but substantial disability likely to last between 1 and 3 years that makes it very difficult to walk or stops them walking at all.
- Are registered blind
- Have a severe disability in both upper limbs, regularly drive but cannot turn the steering wheel of a vehicle by hand.
So if you think you qualify, apply to your Local Authority.
What About Disabled Children?
The scheme has been extended recently to allow parents or carers of disabled children to apply for a Blue Badge. The guide I have from the Scottish Executive is quite prescriptive about what qualifies. It says:
Children under 2 whose medical needs require that he or she is accompanied by bulky medical equipment which includes in particular any of the following:
- Ventilators
- Suction Pumps
- Feed Pumps
- Parenteral Equipment
- Syringe Drivers
- Oxygen Administration Equipment and
- Continual Oxygen Saturation Equipment
It is not clear whether this list is designed to offer guidance or whether a child MUST need something on this list to qualify. I would appreciate a comment that clears this point. I believe that children aged three can apply for a badge in their own right.
My advice is ALWAYS ASK. The worst they can say is no!
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Hello. Wanted to say that the rules for qualification aren’t as simple as it appears here.
Im a back, hip and leg pain sufferer. This has lasted 3.5 years so far and looks likley to continue. I use a walking stick with sometimes the need to use swing through crutches when very bad. I use a BuTrans patch currently at 20ug per hour. Unfortunately the council do not look at the level of pain releif required, only on the distance each individual is able to walk. The condition must be expected to last 3 or more years (permanent and substantial) and severely inhibit walking…although apparently having to use a stick/crutches is not enough…your walking distance without being in agony should be less than 50 meters.
Mine was originally rejected. Im waiting to hear from them a second time.
Be careful and discuss with your GP if you are going to apply. His support is of the utmost importance.
I do believe that councils should be asking walking distance, but this should be taken with a host of other information about each individual condition including pain levels and analgesia levels where applicable. On pain releief that completely takes away the pain (not yet discovered) Im sure I could leap like a startled gazelle, but Id be high as a kite doing it!!
Thanks for your comments Ruth. I agree with all of them!
I was lucky(?) in that I automatically qualified for a badge because I get DLA mobility. I think that having to apply for a badge must be quite a degrading process. There are certainly a lot of problems with the current system, not least the fact that the rules are different for every council.
I wish you all the best with your application, please let us know how you get on and pass on any tips you think might be useful to others.
All the best,
Jamie.