New Blue Badge anti-fraud measures

anntics

jdavanport wrote: »

I asked Asda to do something about the disabled bays being used by
non-disabled people, their reply: IF THEY ARE ASKED TO MOVE, WE WILL LOSE A CUSTOMER, QUOTE. I think that says it all.:mad:

I got the same reply from Tesco several times. I no longer shop there, so yes, they did lose a customer. I now shop at my local somerfield most of the time and the staff couldn't be more helpful.

3onitsway

madmumof5 wrote: »

Hi, 1 of my sons is ADHD and the other has autism so i know exactly what you mean parking close is so important we have a badge which i do not use unless my son is with me but we often get dirty looks from elderly or wheel chair bound people thinking we are mis using the badge eve n on 1 occasion in tesco car park a womwn has a real go at me saying i did not have anyone in car disabled and was really rude even when i explained about my children so yes i agree a different colored badge for children also i saw in a car recently a sign saying disabled badge holders are not always physically disabled apparently they are on ebay so going to have a look.


Donna

I'm another one!! I have a stunningly handsome (biased - me?) 11 year old severely autistic and mentally disabled son.
Because he looks so 'normal' I frequently get the 'look', again mostly from the elderly, when I park using his blue badge.
And I've been challenged a few times. There used to be a mad old man who used to hang around the Asda car park ranting at people using blue badges! Was he bitter, and wishing he was disabled enough to get a badge??? Nuts!!
I also have a little girl - who's perfectly normal. (As little girls go!) - so if i'm shopping with both of them, i'll try and use a mum and child space, before a disabled one - just to save us from the agro!
I'd agree with a different colour badge for children - not sure about the photo/more info on the front of the badge though.

cw18

My DH has a blue badge, but as he's not fit to drive anymore that means he's always the passenger.

I would never dream of using his badge unless he was with me -- even if it meant spending ages tracking down a "normal" space whilst there was an empty disabled bay (as it has on one rare occasion, but probably as there were a couple of traffic wardens in a very close proximity to said disabled space )

If I drop him off at the entry to somewhere before parking, then I wouldn't use his badge to get a disabled bay for that trip either (with one exception mentioned later in the post) -- if I've had to drop him it means the bays are too far for him to walk from the car, therefore it follows it's also too far for him to walk back to the car, and as such I don't feel I/we have a right to use the badge -- even though by using the badge I wouldn't have to pay, and by using a normal bay I do !!

As to the extra info on the BB, I'd be quite distressed at displaying the photo for all to see -- but am happy enough to have it on the reverse to show any official person (police/traffic warden/supermarket staff). In our case I (or someone else) would always be with DH, but if he were able to drive (and get out by himself) then displaying the badge would leave him open to being identified as a 'vunerable person' who would be easy to mug on returning to the car..... I can just imagine the thugs who would check out the photos and then watch for the return of the BB owners in the hope of 'easy pickings'.


With regards to paying, then I'm not sure where I stand on this one - mainly as I'm aware it's possible to be in a very well paying job and still get DLA and a BB. As I mentioned, I sometimes use a normal space (and pay) even when others may use a disabled bay (and get it free), even though we've seen a 41% drop in "disposable income" over the last 2 years -- and could really do without paying for parking on top of the other expenses involved in continuing to run the car (which is one of the things that would have been given up if DH didn't need to be run to so many places). But there are some places where I think it's wrong to make BB holders pay -- hospitals being one.

Now don't get me wrong, I think it's a disgrace that anyone has to pay at a hospital, but the chances are that someone with a BB is going to have a lot more hospital appts than someone without one (I know some people with don't have many, and some people without may have lots -- but my experiences are that we've been much more since getting and friends seem to balance out the same way). We're lucky in that the two hospitals we bounce between both operate free parking for BB holders (one of them allowing it even if you can't get a disabled bay -- which is the one time I do drop off DH at the entry and then use his badge), but I'm also aware that this isn't always the case.



In any case, from conversations I've been involved in (face to face with people who worked for the same company as me), I'm more concerned about the fraudulent use of free road tax than incorrect BB parking.

DH could apply for free road tax for my car, but as I use it once in a while for some "me" time (visiting friends, baby sitting GDs, taking elder GD to routine hospital check-ups, or just a run out somewhere for a break), this means I'd be using it illegally -- and as such I continue to stump up for my road tax even though my "personal" use of the car is only about 10-15% of the total annual mileage.

In conversation several people have mentioned they (or someone they know) get free road tax on behalf of someone else, and carry on using the car as before -- and they all thought I was nuts to carry on paying for mine. But if they're in an accident while not using the car for benefit of the entitled person (who I know doesn't actually have to be with them), then I guess their insurance company could claim the car shouldn't have been on the road, which then means they're also an uninsured driver. And then what happens to the person who's property they've just damaged (or worse) -- I can just imagine the fight to get anything back from the now uninsured driver !!

Unfortunately I never felt I had enough information (or proof) to try finding out where to report them!!! (no car number plate, no full name, no home address, and often not even the first name of the person who applied for the disk)

hellokittygal

Well my brother is disabled and cannot walk far so he has a BB. We went out to Sainsburys on day and there was 1 disabled bay left and a woman drove past all the parent child bays and parked in the disabled bay, she then got out with a baby and went in. She had no badge.
We ended up parking in a parent child bay as he is still a child.
When we got back we had a note on the window saying that we were lazy and shouldn't park in parent child bays and should park in the disabled bays provided for us.
What !!!!es me off is that parents park in those bays and seem to think a wheelchair picture means pushchair aswell, same with disabled toilets.
The amount of parents that say to my mum as shes coming out of one with my brother, that needs a radar key, 'oh leave it open for us, we'll just pop in'. She asks them if their child is disabled and when they look at her oddly and say no she shuts the door. This is parents with 7/8 year old children that are perfectly capable of toileting themselves, paren ts just wont que.