Therewas a news story a few days ago. It wasn’t mega-news but enough to make the BBC’s web site.
The story is basically a woman, who has a small son who’s disabled, got a rude note on her windscreen for using a blue-badge parking space. Apparently, she was displaying a perfectly-valid permit in the vehicle.
I’ve seen this from both sides. Often, people don’t appear to be disabled, and I think people must just assume because of that, that they aren’t disabled. Some of my stroke buddies, say, have problems with their eyes – of course we don’t see this when we see them. It highlights how looks can be deceptive.
On the other hand, we sometimes go to the supermarket at lunchtime, and I will see a white van parked in a disabled bay, the van has no badge on display and the driver invariably turns up 5 minutes later, sandwich in hand. So I do think abuse takes place.
For me, the badge is the key. I got mine by virtue of having PIP, so I already jumped through the necessary hoops to get that, although it was granted by the local authority not by the DWP. I think my permit lasts until 2019, although I still (today) receive PIP (I had an assessment a few months ago), so there’s no reason to think that the renewal won’t be straightforward. The badge lives in the glove box of the car, so, in theory, it is always with us.
Mister Bump 