Memorandum from Help the Aged (BBS 04)
Help the Aged welcomes the opportunity to submit
evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee on the Blue
Badge (disabled parking) Reform Strategy. Help the Aged has drawn
on our extensive research and experience of working with and talking
to older people. Through the Charity's engagement strategy, Vocal
Point, all issues older people raise with any member of the Charity
are logged anonymously and monitored to feed into the work of
the organisation and steer the issues on which we actively lobby
and campaign. We also proactively seek older people's opinions
on specific topics through focus groups and listening events,
as well as liaising with members of Speaking Up For Our Age, a
programme which facilitates and supports hundreds of local older
people's forums. For this consultation, we also engaged the opinions
of our regional development officers who are often involved with
older people in local and national consultation.
SUMMARY
— Help the Aged welcomes the inquiry
into the Blue Badge (disabled parking) Reform Strategy. Public
transport remains inaccessible for large numbers of older people
and the Blue Badge scheme is therefore of vital importance in
maintaining mobility and independence for many older people.
— We are very concerned by the narrow
eligibility criteria for Blue Badges and feel that any older person
receiving Attendance Allowance should automatically be eligible
for the Blue Badge scheme.
— We recognise that it would be sensible
to retain the current three year issuing period, but feel that
under no circumstances should this be reduced.
— Some Local Authorities no longer
issue reminders for Blue Badge schemes and as a result some older
people, who have accidentally let their Badge lapse, may be unfairly
penalised. We therefore recommend that all Local Authorities be
required to issue reminders for the renewal of Badges.
— We would be happy for Local Authorities
to have greater discretion over the parking concessions they offer,
however there must be rigorous guidelines issued to ensure that
decision made do not impact negatively on users of the Blue Badge.
— It is vital that older people are
consulted on decisions about parking concessions, in order to
ascertain need amongst this group.
— More information should be made automatically
available to Blue Badge holders to enable them to use their Blue
Badge fully and to understand its limitations.
— In addition to the Blue Badge scheme,
Help the Aged is calling for greater efforts to improve Community
Transport networks, taxi services, and ensure that flexible alternatives
to buses are provided. These are vital to ensure that older people
who have to give up driving, or lose access to a car through friends,
do not become excluded and isolated. Older people will not need
to use their own cars, if affordable, accessible, reliable and
safe transport is made available.
Below we offer some comments on key areas of
the inquiry.
1. Should the Assessed Eligibility Criteria
be changed and, if so, how?
1.1 Help the Aged is concerned that the
Assessed Eligibility Criteria are too narrowly focused at present.
People who become disabled after 65 they are not entitled to Disability
Living Allowance (DLA) and are only able to apply for Attendance
Allowance, which does not include a mobility component. As a result
they are not automatically eligible for a Blue Badge and are forced
to rely on discretion. This is blatant age discrimination. We
believe that people who are in receipt of Attendance Allowance
should automatically be eligible for the Blue Badge scheme.
1.2 The National Travel Survey has shown
that around 45% of people over 70 have difficulty walking and
using buses due to limited mobility.[1]
Many will therefore be dependant on the Blue Badge Scheme to meet
their transport needs.
1.3 Increases in longevity will inevitably
involve a significant increase in the number of "very old
drivers". Currently over two million people aged 70 and over
hold driving licences in Great Britain—by 2015 this will
double to four and a half million, and clearly many of these people
will have some form of physical impairment. Statistics show that
38% of people in Great Britain aged 65-74 and 50% of those aged
75+ have a limiting longstanding illness.[2]
Currently, men in the UK can expect to live their last 6.7 years
with a disability. For women, the average is 8.8 years.[3]
The UK can therefore expect many more older disabled drivers in
the future.
1.4 Without access to the Blue Badge scheme
many older people will be at risk of isolation and loneliness,
which are growing problems in the UK. In 2007 Help the Aged found
that 13% of older people felt often or always lonely.[4]
The same survey found that 22% of older people were effectively
isolated as they needed help to get out and about, but didn't
have it.
1.5 Isolation and loneliness are not necessary
effects of the ageing process, but life events associated with
older age such as leaving work, health decline and bereavement
do put people at greater risk. There is evidence that individuals
who have driven their entire life tend to be more isolated in
old age when they are forced to stop driving. In a survey on older
drivers, a total of 73% reported that they used their car "everyday
or most days", and 24% "several times a week".[5]
1.6 It is clear that for many respondents
to this survey, car ownership and driving played a vital role
in their lives. Without access to the Blue Badge Scheme, many
older drivers would be forced to give up driving and would lose
mobility and independence, as these quotations demonstrate:
"Being disabled through arthritis, my wife
and I rely on our car. Driving for both of us is a blessing. We
are over four miles from the nearest bus stop, so the car is essential.
We have no shop, no post office, no school, no pub. I have stopped
driving long journeys, but we are 12 miles from the nearest station".
"(Being) housebound without a car, and social
life reduced to nil, the car is essential to us. (Living without
a car) would lead to isolation and depression as kith and kin
living long distances away. (It would be) devastating, particularly
during cold, wet weather, having to struggle with shopping bags
on and off buses, and then walk quite a distance to my own front
door".
2. Should the minimum badge issue period
be lowered from the current three years?
2.1 Most older people who hold a Blue Badge
do so on the basis of a long term condition in which they are
unlikely to see improvement, therefore in the strictest sense
issuing a badge for life would probably be appropriate. However
Help the Aged accepts the logic behind the current three year
issuing period, to prevent abuse and ensure a properly updated
database.
2.2 However, under no circumstances would
we wish to see Blue Badges issued for a shorter period. If the
badge issue period were reduced it would not only increase the
burden on potentially vulnerable older people, but would also
increase the administration costs.
2.3 Help the Aged is concerned that some
Local Authorities no longer issue reminders to Blue Badge holders
whose Badges are about to expire. As a result some older people
have accidentally let their Badge lapse and been penalised. We
therefore recommend that all Local Authorities be required to
issue reminders for the renewal of Badges.
3. Should local authorities have more discretion
to vary the yellow-line and on-street parking concessions (eg
allowing badge holders to park without charge for more time in
some areas and less in others depending on local traffic conditions
and disabled access)?
3.1 Help the Aged would welcome greater
flexibility for local authorities to vary parking concessions,
as this would allow greater tailoring of provision to the needs
of the older people living in the area, but feels that this should
only go ahead if backed by rigorous guidelines to ensure that
decisions made locally do not impact negatively on users of the
Blue Badge.
3.2 At the moment, older people tell us
they often have to modify their plans around where they expect
a suitable parking space to be available. In this way the lack
of places is restricting the freedom of older people with disabilities.
We believe it is vital that older people are consulted to find
out more about their needs. This would enable the more efficient
distribution of parking concessions.
3.3 We also believe it is vital that more
information is made available to Blue Badge holders to enable
them to both use their Blue Badge fully and to understand its
limitations.
4. Should the London Concession (the regulations
that exempt the four central London boroughs from the national
Blue Badge Scheme) be redrawn so that it is aligned with the London
Congestion Charge Zone (recognising that the zone may alter in
size)?
Yes.
5. Are there any other changes which should
be made to the concessions associated with a Blue badge?
5.1 We believe that more should be done
to improve Community Transport networks, taxi services, and ensure
that flexible alternatives to the buses are provided. This is
vital to ensure that older people do not become excluded and isolated
when they stop driving or lose access to a car through a friend
or relative. Older people will not need to use their own car,
if affordable, accessible, reliable and safe transport is made
available.
5.2 This should be offered in addition to
the Blue Badge Scheme, not instead. Many older people feel strongly
that they want to keep their cars and continue driving and this
free choice should be enabled.
6. What would be the likely impact of any
proposed changes on the number of people holding badges, the availability
of disabled parking spaces and on local government administration
and costs?
6.1 The economic costs of failing to support
older people's continued mobility are significant. It is absolutely
vital that any costs associated with increasing access to Blue
Badges for older people are weighed against the cost of losing
their contribution as consumers and citizens if their mobility
is not enabled.
6.2 We feel that too much focus has been
pinpointed on the abuse of the scheme, and not enough evidence
has been placed on the need and the benefit the scheme provides
to people who would otherwise be unable to maintain their independence.
6.3 Flexible alternatives to the bus travel
concession should also be viewed as a tactic to offer older people
the mobility they require.
February 2008
1 National Travel Survey 2007. Back
2
General Household Survey 2006, table 7.2(b), Office for National
Statistics, January 2008. Back
3
Life expectancy (LE), healthy life expectancy (HLE) and disability-free
life expectancy (DFLE) at birth and age 65: by country and sex,
2004, ONS, January 2008. Back
4
Spotlight 2007 and "Help Unite Generations" surveys
(NOP/ GfK, 2006 and 2007). Back
5
Help the Aged 2008. Back
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