4.1 Applicants will be eligible for a Blue Badge if they:
- satisfy residency and identity checks, and
- meet one of two types of eligibility criteria
4.2 Applicants who have a terminal illness that limits their mobility should support their application with a DS1500/SR1 medical information form if their life expectancy is less than 12 months. These applications will be fast-tracked by the Blue Badge team.
Type 1: Eligible without further assessment: automatic qualification
4.3 Applicants aged three (3) years or over will automatically qualify for a Blue badge where the applicant meets one or more of the following criteria:
- receives the Higher Rate of the Mobility Component of the Disability Living Allowance (HRMCDLA); or
- receives the mobility component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and has obtained eight (8) points or more under the ‘moving around’ activity; or
- receives the mobility component of PIP and has obtained ten (10) points specifically for Descriptor E under the ‘planning and following journeys’ activity on the grounds that they are ‘unable to undertake any journey because it would cause them overwhelming psychological distress’; or
- is registered blind (severely sight impaired); or
- receives a War Pensioner’s Mobility Supplement (WPMS); or
- has been both awarded a lump sum benefit at tarrifs1-8 of the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and certified as having a permanent and substantial disability which causes inability to walk or very considerable difficulty in walking
Note: Armed Forces Independence Payment (AFIP) awards are not included in Type 1 eligibility criteria.
4.4 The Blue Badge team will re-assess applications declined on the grounds that the applicant was not awarded/no longer receives the HRMCDLA or the appropriate PIP score against Type 2 (next page) criteria before making a final eligibility decision.
Type 2: Eligible subject to further assessment
Applicants aged three (3) years or over
4.5 Applicants aged three (3) years or over will qualify for a Blue Badge if they are able to demonstrate either that:
- they regularly drive an adapted or non-adapted vehicle, have a severe disability in both arms and are unable to operate, or have considerable difficulty in operating, all or some types of parking meter
Note: A badge will not be issued under this criterion to anyone who travels solely as a passenger or who only has difficulty carrying parcels, shopping or other heavy objects such as luggage.
or
- they have an enduring (i.e. lasting for at least three (3) years) and substantial disability which causes them during the course of a journey to be unable to walk or experience very considerable difficulty whilst walking, which may include very considerable psychological distress
- in addition they may be at serious risk of serious harm when walking – or pose when walking a risk of serious harm to any other person
Note: difficulty whilst walking under this criterion could be caused by a physical or a non -visible (‘hidden’) disability.
4.6 If it is not self evident from the application form and supporting evidence that the applicant meets/does not meet the type 2 criteria, before making the eligibility decision the Blue Badge team will ask the applicant to complete an additional questionnaire and/or arrange a face to face assessment with an expert assessor before making the eligibility decision. The expert assessor may:
- with the applicant’s consent, request further information from a health professional named by the applicant in their application / supporting material, or
- if no professional contact is named, ask the applicant for contact details of suitable professional
4.7 The application will be declined if the applicant does not:
- provide additional information requested by the Blue Badge team
- attend a face to face assessment arranged by the Blue Badge team
Please see section 6 for more information about when an application is declined.
Children under the age of three (3)
4.8 Children under the age of three (3) may be eligible for a Blue Badge where the child has a medical condition as a result of which:
- the child must always be accompanied by bulky medical equipment which cannot be carried around with the child without great difficulty, for example:
- ventilators
- suction machines
- feed pumps
- parenteral equipment
- syringe drivers
- oxygen administration equipment
- continuous oxygen saturation monitoring equipment
- casts and associated medical equipment for the correction of hip dysplasia
and/or
- the child needs to be near a vehicle at all times so that necessary treatment can be given in the vehicle or the child can be quickly transported somewhere else for treatment (for example to hospital or home). This criterion is usually applied to children with unstable medical conditions, for example:
- children with tracheostomies
- children with severe epilepsy / fitting
- children with highly unstable diabetes
- terminally ill children who can only access brief moments of outside life and need a quick route home
Organisations
4.9 A Blue Badge may be issued to an organisation where the organisation is able to demonstrate that:
- it provides care for and transports people who themselves meet the eligibility criteria for a Blue Badge
Note: Blue Badges will not be issued to taxis, private hire, or community transport operators as they are involved only in transporting disabled people and are not involved in their care.
and
- there is a genuine and necessary reason for the organisation to have an organisational badge. It is preferable for people to apply for their own Blue Badge which they can then use in any vehicle they are driving or in which they are travelling as a passenger
4.10 Organisations may only display a Blue Badge when someone who would be eligible for a badge in their own right is being transported. Drivers may be fined if they use the badge to take advantage of concessions where there are no such passengers in the vehicle.
