Memorandum from Disability Alliance (BBS
02)
1. SUMMARY AND
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The main observations of Disability
Alliance are:
— The qualifying rules for the blue
badge should be expanded to assist a wider range of people who
have difficulties reaching an intended destination on foot or
by public transport (section 2).
— The minimum issue period for a badge
should be lowered (section 3).
— Guidance from the Department for
Transport to local authorities should be changed to remove additional
barriers to receipt of the blue badge that do not appear in the
legislation (section 4).
— The rules for receipt of the highest
rate of the mobility component of disability living allowance
(DLA) for a child aged under three years should be aligned with
the current blue badge rules for children under two (section 5).
1.2 Disability Alliance is a national registered
charity with the principal aim of relieving the poverty and improving
the living standards of disabled people. We provide information
to disabled people, their families, carers and professional advisers.
We are best known as the authors of the Disability Rights Handbook,
an annual publication with a print-run of 30,000. We undertake
research into the needs of disabled people, with particular emphasis
on income needs and promote a wider understanding of the views
and circumstances of all disabled people. We play an important
role in advising and lobbying MPs and peers on the effects of
new and existing disability benefits. Our eventual aim is to break
the link between poverty and disability.
1.3 Disability Alliance's expertise is in
support services for disabled people. Therefore, we have not commented
on local authority parking procedures, the extension of the London
congestion charge or provision of parking spaces.
2. THE QUALIFYING
RULES FOR
THE BLUE
BADGE
2.1 Disability Alliance believes that the
qualifying rules for a blue badge are too restrictive. The scheme
ignores many severely disabled people who need to be able to park
close to the places that they visit.
Medical equipment or treatment
2.2 Presently the badge can be awarded to
a child under two years who needs bulky medical equipment nearby
or who must be near a vehicle in case they need treatment in the
vehicle or must be quickly taken to where they can be treated.1
We believe that this route to qualification should be extended
to all disabled people, regardless of their age.
Severe mental impairment
2.3 The Transport Committee asks whether
the badge should be available for "people who are severely
mentally impaired or who have extremely disruptive behaviour".
Disability Alliance supports the award of the badge to both of
these categories of people. We also believe that it is important
that disabled people can qualify under each of these routes independently.
2.4 The proposal is obviously modelled on
a similar one in DLA; a claimant can qualify for the highest rate
of the mobility component if they have both a severe mental impairment
and exhibit disruptive behaviour (and qualify for the highest
rate of the care component of DLA).2 These terms are strictly
defined and designed to include only those with the most severe
impairments to brain function and the most violent behaviour.3
We believe that a person who fits either of these descriptions
is likely to experience severe difficulties travelling short distances
on foot and should be accepted as requiring a blue badge. Needing
to fulfil both conditions is unnecessarily restrictive.
2.5 The definition of severe mental impairment
used in DLA excludes those who's brain is damaged in later life
(after their late 20s) and people with degenerative brain diseases
(eg Alzheimer's disease).4 If a similar route to qualification
is adopted for the blue badge, we recommend that all people are
given equal access, regardless of their age at the onset of their
impairment.
2.6 The DLA rule for people exhibiting disruptive
behaviour requires close supervision whenever they are awake.5
We believe that this requirement is too restrictive. Supervision
at home or during the night hours is unlikely to result in a need
to park close to a given destination. As such, we suggest that
any supervision requirements are restricted to outdoor needs.
General widening of qualification for the blue
badge
2.7 The blue badge scheme recognises that
as a result of their disability some people will need to park
nearer to their destination than local parking schemes allow.
With the increased use of pedestrianisation, congestion charges,
red routes, permit parking and similar traffic restrictions, it
is becoming increasingly difficult to park on main roads or in
town centres. Disability Alliance believes it is time for a major
reassessment of the qualifying rules for the blue badge scheme.
2.8 Any reassessment should be based on
likely walking distances from ordinary public parking places to
destinations in town centres or on main roads. These distances
are likely to be several times greater than the limitations to
walking ability for which the badge is currently awarded. Department
for Transport's guidance to local authorities suggests that a
badge might be refused if the applicant can walk a distance of
only 65 metres.6 This distance is closer to the length of an average
town-centre car park than it is to the likely walking distance
from the car park to Woolworths.
2.9 As is already recognised to some extent
by the scheme, it is not solely difficulties with the activity
of walking that might result in a need to park nearer an intended
destination. Transporting medical equipment and a need to reach
a car swiftly in an emergency are already recognised as qualifying
needs for children under two years; and an inability to use a
parking metre because of upper limb impairments is a qualification
condition for people of any age. Disability Alliance believes
that the blue badge scheme should be extended further to include
other disabled people who have substantial difficulties in travelling
on foot or by public transport. People who might qualify under
an expanded system could include those who, because of a severe
disability:
— cannot use public transport;
— are unsafe in traffic or for some
other reason are unsafe out of doors;
— have agoraphobia or suffer severe
panic attacks out of doors;
— have no sense of direction or regularly
get lost; and
— (for whatever reason) cannot go out
without a companion.
3. MINIMUM ISSUE
PERIOD
3.1 Disability Alliance believes that the
present minimum issue period of 3 years is too long. In Scotland,
the minimum issue period is 12 months. A disability living allowance
award can be made for a minimum of 6 months once a qualifying
period of 3 months has passed (or immediately and without a minimum
time limit if the claimant has a terminal illness).7 We recommend
that a minimum award closer to these nine- and 12-month rules
are adopted for the blue badge scheme.
4. GUIDANCE TO
LOCAL AUTHORITIES
4.1 Disability Alliance is concerned that
Department for Transport's guidance to local authorities appears
to create additional barriers to the issue of a blue badge to
those that appear in the relevant legislation. Two examples of
these barriers are outlined below.
4.2 A blue badge can be awarded to "a
person who ... has a permanent and substantial disability which
causes inability to walk or very considerable difficulty in walking".8
The law makes no reference to the cause of the inability or difficulty
in walking. The guidance, however, indicates that the walking
problem must stem from a physical cause.9
4.3 A person with upper limb disabilities
qualifies for a badge if s/he "drives a vehicle regularly,
has a severe disability in both arms and is unable to operate,
or has considerable difficulty in operating, all or some types
of parking metre".10 A flow chart in the guidance indicates
that a person cannot qualify for a badge unless their upper limb
disability is of "comparable severity that would enable them
to qualify for a vehicle with adapted steering"11—again,
a condition not required by the law.
4.4 Disability Alliance asks the Committee
to recommend a comprehensive redrafting of the Department for
Transport's guidance.
5. EXTENDING
THE HIGHER
RATE OF
THE MOBILITY
OF DLA TO
CHILDREN UNDER
TWO YEARS
5.1 We are aware that benefit law is outside
the remit of the Transport Committee. However, the highest rate
of the mobility component of DLA is not paid until a child's third
birthday. In some ways this is understandable, as an average child
does not start to walk until it is at least a year old; making
it difficult to assess walking problems in very young children.
The test used in the blue badge assessment is a very good one
of whether the carer for a young child is likely to have extra
transport costs that result directly from the disability. As such,
we request that the Committee recommends its adoption for DLA.
REFERENCES
1. Regulation 4(3), Disabled Persons (Badges
for Motor Vehicles) (England) Regulations 2000, as amended.
2. Section 73(3), Social Security Contributions
and Benefits Act 1992.
3. Regulations 12(5) & (6), Social Security
(Disability Living Allowance) Regulations 1991.
4. Social Security Commissioner's decision CDLA/156/94.
5. Regulation 12(6), Social Security (Disability
Living Allowance) Regulations 1991.
6. Page 17, The Blue Badge Scheme Local Authority
Guidance (England), January 2008.
7. Sections 72(5) and 73(9), Social Security
Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.
8. Regulation 4(2)(f), Disabled Persons (Badges
for Motor Vehicles) (England) Regulations 2000.
9. Pages 17 and 19, The Blue Badge Scheme Local
Authority Guidance (England), January 2008.
10. Regulation 4(2)(e), Disabled Persons (Badges
for Motor Vehicles) (England) Regulations 2000.
11. Page 15, The Blue Badge Scheme Local Authority
Guidance (England), January 2008.
February 2008
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