Proposals to Change the Eligibility for Blue Badge Scheme Announced

21/01/2018

A consultation on the eligibility criteria for the Blue Badge scheme has been announced by the Government, which will extend the scheme to those with non -physical disabilities.  JESSE NORMAN parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport has said;

“The Government believes that the Blue Badge scheme should not discriminate in principle between physical and non-physical disabilities.

The current rules embrace all conditions, physical or otherwise, but it has become clear to us that the regulations and guidance are not clearly understood by local authorities. People with hidden disabilities may be finding it difficult to access badges, even though their condition causes them very significant difficulties when undertaking a journey.”

The consultation proposes that the current criteria which focuses on those who have “a permanent and substantial disability which causes inability to walk or very considerable difficulty in walking”, will be changed to the following:

“a person who has an enduring and substantial disability the effect of which is that that person is unable to-

i. walk;

ii. undertake any journey without it causing very considerable difficulty when walking;

iii. undertake any journey without there being a risk of very considerable harm to the health or safety of that person or any other person;

iv. follow the route of any journey without another person, assistance animal or orientation aid.”

There are also proposals to change the criteria for eligibility assessors so that a range of healthcare professionals can carry out this role and on providing automatic badge eligibility to those people who receive 12 points for the ‘Planning and Following Journeys’ activity of the mobility component of Personal Independence Payment, for non-physical mobility issues.

The consultation details are available on https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/blue-badge-disabled-parking-scheme-eligibility-review and it is open until 18^th March 2014