Blue badge bureaucracy grr!!

I am open mouthed at the incompetence surrounding my application for a replacement blue badge - and I hope can help people avoid the frustration I am experiencing!! I also hope that it will help me to get it off my chest :slight_smile:

Knowing the expiry date was coming up, I applied online, through the government website, and received a confirmation email and tracking reference number. I rang the council a few days later to check they’d received my application but was told they couldn’t find it. As paper documents have to be sent off even with an electronic application, I duly printed off the documents and reapplied with a paper version.

Again wondering about the progress of my application, I have just phoned, to be told that it takes longer for a paper application and that an online application is quicker. But, the tracking reference isn’t accurate and they don’t always receive the electronic applications (as happened in my case). So, very apologetic as the person I spoke to was, I will not get my new blue badge until a few weeks after my old one has expired. Altogether, it will have taken 2 months from start to finish. What is also frustrating is that I am going away for a few days within that period of time and am likely to want to use the badge but won’t be able to.

Let this serve as a warning to all of you who may be renewing over the next few months!

There, I do feel a little better and I hope I’ve done someone a good turn…

Rant rant!!

Bouncy x

ouch bouncy!

i renewed mine 2 weeks ago. i cant write so went to local library where they have a new system which is a direct link to local badge issuing people. they took my photo via this live link for on the badge and the new badge arrived within 5 days!

i hope this available to everyone soon!

hope your situation works out!

ellie

1 Like

hi bouncy

my local council has a one stop shop based in the library.

i was able to use their computer and then walk straight to the blue badge desk where a new badge was issued.

brilliant because i’d spent 3 days trying on my computer at home but when i finished a page and clicked next it kept going straight back to the beginning!

carolle x

Bouncy,

So frustrating. Thanks for the warning though.

Hope you get a new one soon.

Jen

x

Hi, I also got very frustrated with the on line application…it went so far, but wouldnt complete. As you say, you have to send or take paperwork, so whats the chuffin point of an e application.

Grr and grr gain!

pollx

Need to renew my bb this month so am wondering if Norfolk libraries have this service ?

I got turned down for one! I’ve put in an appeal and waiting to hear back about that. Couldn’t believe it!

Do you all have to fill in the complete forms - even though you have had a BB for years. Surely, they know that we have a progressive disease - with no cure - so unless they know something we don’t why do we have to start at the beginning each time. l have used the same photo 3 times and they have not noticed!!

l ought to contact the DWP - l get high rate mobility - low rate personal care. Well that was OK 30 yrs ago - but things have gone downhill since then. But l just feel it is a lot of hassle to do - and l don’t need hassle. The forms for Attendance Allowance is like reading War and Peace. l joined Benefitsandwork - and l know they would help - but it is still - a hassle.

Hi Bouncy. my blue badge ran out end of april l tryed to get in to renew it but was told the first time they will see me is middle of may in the town up 8 steps. then on sat got a letter to tell me that it had ran out and to return the old one or cut it up. wish l had applyed the lst April. take care all regards Jan xx

Thanks for all your replies - I have calmed down a bit now! By coincidence I used the gov.org.uk website for something else and was asked to give feedback so I was able to have my say!! Whether it will be read and any changes made is doubtful.

Some of you seem to have a much better system via the library. I suppose the moral of the story is to reapply at least two months in advance.

Best wishes to you all

B x

Hi all my blue badge came today went to the library last Tuesday with my paperwork and the ÂŁ10, badge came today pity l had to wait 3 weeks after old one ran out to get it renewed take care all regards Jan xx

I’ve been reading these replies with great interest because my own experience of renewing my blue badge recently is entirely different. First of all I received a letter from my City Council reminding me it was to expire in June but also asking me to ring my Civic Centre to arrange an appointment to go there in person to renew it. The reason given was quote “ we have to be satisfied the photograph is a true likeness of the holder taken in the last 3 months”.

I thought that in itself was incredible but this is what happened when my husband came with me for the appointment:-

I turned up at the allotted time, presented myself at the desk along with the documentation asked for in the letter ( passport, birth cert. marriage cert and the last letter I had informing me of high mobility component DLA) only to be asked if I’d brought the four paged form they’d sent me to fill in.

I hadn’t received that form so I was sent out into the open-plan foyer whilst people were arriving for work to fill one in. My husband had to dash out to get my current blue badge from the car whilst I tried to get on with it. This was nigh on impossible because not only was I distracted by people I knew arriving for work but my handwriting is shot, and I simply cannot do much cognitively when under pressure. I get difficulty writing numbers inside square boxes as it is, but I had to fill in three registration numbers of cars in which I travel. I can’t remember my husband’s number plate, let alone son, friends, family etc. whose cars I travel in.

Right at the end I had to handwrite inside an A4 sized page, a letter of application saying why I thought I needed one. I’m no good writing off the cuff but somehow cut it down to roughly - Diagnosed with MS 1991, use a walking stick and need a wheelchair on the odd occasion. EDDS 6. Under the care of [name of Neuro]

In a nutshell I’d like to join Bouncy with a massive Grrrr.

Eiona

That sounds awful! My brain would have shut down completely on being given a form to fill in on the spot. I can’t deal with situations like that at all now.

How long’s it going to be before you find out if you’ve succeeded, eiona?

And WHY is doing something that should surely be simple - renewing something you already have - become so fraught with peril! It makes no sense to me : / How long are blue badges valid for?

jelly

3 years

ellie

As it happens it must have arrived within a week, would you believe? We went away for a break at a friend’s place shortly afterwards and when we got home 2 days ago it was there with the rest of the mail.

Ellie has answered your other question so yes that’s correct- 3 yrs.

I’d forgotten to mention in my original posting, that I was asked to stand against a plain white wall to have my photo taken by a clerk with a compact camera. Again - incredible, but also by that time I was so annoyed I felt like giving the clerk a lesson on composing the shot :wink: Despite the fact that my fine motor coordination is shot with regards dexterity, I can still take photos at a professional standard thanks to gadgets and gizmos. Ironic.

Has anyone got any good news stories to share? :frowning: