withdrawal of free over 75s visitors parking permit

lorryw

My 87 year old Mum is housebound and has lived in the same house for over 50 years without a car.
Her local council sent her a letter today concerning renewal of residents parking permits.
"The 100% subsidy for residential visitors parking permits for people over 75 is ending. From July 30th all residential parking permits must be paid for. The change is required by age discrimination legislation which requires all age groups to be treated equally"
Surely that would mean that student railcards/pensioners bus passes are also illegal?

Car_54

Ask them what specific legislation they believe applies.
Also, speak to your councillor. And the local rag.

lisyloo

Some forms of age discrimination are allowed.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/discrimination-in-the-provision-of-goods-and-services/discrimination-in-the-provision-of-goods-and-services1/goods-and-services-what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/what-doesn-t-count-as-unlawful-discrimination-in-goods-and-services/age-discrimination-when-discrimination-is-allowed-in-the-provision-of-goods-or-services/

if your council offered it they'd potentially have to justify why it was ok as an exception.
persoanlly I don’t think age on it’s own should allow your mum to qualify. 

Disability should qualify not age.

facade

lisyloo said:

Some forms of age discrimination are allowed.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/discrimination-in-the-provision-of-goods-and-services/discrimination-in-the-provision-of-goods-and-services1/goods-and-services-what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/what-doesn-t-count-as-unlawful-discrimination-in-goods-and-services/age-discrimination-when-discrimination-is-allowed-in-the-provision-of-goods-or-services/

if your council offered it they'd potentially have to justify why it was ok as an exception.
persoanlly I don’t think age on it’s own should allow your mum to qualify. 

Disability should qualify not age.

It is perfectly legal to offer a discount or concessionary price to an age group, no reason for the discount not to be 100%, they just want to rake in more money.

These are visitor passes, so relatives can pop in to see the resident. If the resident can't afford one, because they only get a state pension they would have no visitors.......

lisyloo

facade said:

lisyloo said:

Some forms of age discrimination are allowed.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/discrimination-in-the-provision-of-goods-and-services/discrimination-in-the-provision-of-goods-and-services1/goods-and-services-what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/what-doesn-t-count-as-unlawful-discrimination-in-goods-and-services/age-discrimination-when-discrimination-is-allowed-in-the-provision-of-goods-or-services/

if your council offered it they'd potentially have to justify why it was ok as an exception.
persoanlly I don’t think age on it’s own should allow your mum to qualify. 

Disability should qualify not age.

It is perfectly legal to offer a discount or concessionary price to an age group, no reason for the discount not to be 100%, they just want to rake in more money.

These are visitor passes, so relatives can pop in to see the resident. If the resident can't afford one, because they only get a state pension they would have no visitors.......

Ok, but it’s also legal to withdraw a discount?

I don’t agree removing one form of free parking means people can’t visit. It simply means visitors have to park elsewhere.

TooManyPoints

Yes but apart from the removal of the concession itself (which is bad enough) why should the council be allowed to get away with what is blatantly false information? If their contention was correct, older people's free bus (and in London, tube and train) travel would not be permitted but it clearly is; barbers and hairdressers would not be able to offer cheaper haircuts to pensioners, but they clearly can and do.. For the benefit of your council, lorryw, you may want to quote the Equality Act, 2010, Schedule 3, Part 7, para 30A:

"A person does not contravene section 29, so far as relating to age discrimination, by giving a concession in respect of a service to persons of a particular age group."

Section 29 deals with discrimination when providing services (such as free parking).

Personally I would take them to task for this. If they want to remove an age-related concession they can do so. But to say they are forced by legislation is simply untrue and needs showing up. You might also like to ask them why it has taken them twelve years to realise (in their view) they have been breaking the law. The Equality Act was enacted on 8th April 2010.

The trouble is, Local Authorities operate under the belief that all their constituents are thick, but it took me two minutes to find the above paragraph, so making their false statement simply demonstrates their contempt for the people they are supposed to serve.

I don’t agree removing one form of free parking means people can’t visit. It simply means visitors have to park elsewhere.

The idea of the concession (I would imagine) is to enable older people to have visitors, some of whom may provide them with care. The benefit is to the older person (who would otherwise have to pay for their visitors to park) rather than the visitor. Forcing them to park elsewhere is likely to reduce their inclination to visit. 

lorryw

Thank you for the information. I have been trying to find the relevant parts of the Equality Act. I even contacted the Equality Commission for information but they were so desperate to appear impartial they didn't give a straight forward answer.
It is the contempt for residents, that they constituents will accept anything written under the guise of "officialdom" that I find galling.

user1977

TooManyPoints said:

The idea of the concession (I would imagine) is to enable older people to have visitors, some of whom may provide them with care. The benefit is to the older person (who would otherwise have to pay for their visitors to park) rather than the visitor. Forcing them to park elsewhere is likely to reduce their inclination to visit. 

If it's for the benefit of carers then it would be more logical to provide the concession to residents with relevant disabilities (yes, those will also tend to be the elderly, but it's a bit clunky just to give it out on the basis of age).

TooManyPoints

I doubt it was introduced solely for the benefit of carers. That is a side benefit.  In any case, that isn't my gripe (and lorryw's), which is the Local Authority telling lies taking people for idiots.

It is the contempt for residents, that they constituents will accept anything written under the guise of "officialdom" that I find galling.

Precisely.

lisyloo

@TooManyPoints - I posted a link earlier that explained bus passes are exempt from age discrimination legislation and enshrined in primary legislation.

I agree that if something is wrong it should be challenged, but not on an incorrect basis.

if they don’t want to be legally challenged by age discrimination legislation then they are entitled to take a risk averse position.

i would ask for a copy of their legal advice or a reference to the statute they are relying on but I think they can defend their position.

lisyloo

TooManyPoints said:

The idea of the concession (I would imagine) is to enable older people to have visitors, some of whom may provide them with care. The benefit is to the older person (who would otherwise have to pay for their visitors to park) rather than the visitor. Forcing them to park elsewhere is likely to reduce their inclination to visit. 

im glad you’ve moved from cannot to disinclined.

its extremely sad if someone’s carers and friends won’t visit due to not having convenient and free parking.