The Blue Badge parking scheme is for blind people, people who have a severe disability in both arms and people who have difficulties walking due to a physical or psychological issue.
The scheme is also for children under the age of three who must be accompanied by bulky medical equipment or kept near a motor vehicle in order to treat a condition or to transport them quickly to a place where treatment can be given.
Eligible without further assessment
People who may be issued with a badge without further assessment are those who are more than two years old and fall within one or more of the following descriptions:
- receives the Higher Rate of the Mobility Component of the Disability Living Allowance (HRMCDLA)
- receives eight points or more under the moving around activity of the mobility component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
- receives the mobility component of PIP and has obtained 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
- is registered blind (severely sight impaired)
- receives a War Pensioner's Mobility Supplement (WPMS) has been both awarded a lump sum benefit at tariffs 1-8 of the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and certified as having an enduring and substantial disability which causes inability to walk or very considerable difficulty in walking.
Eligible subject to further assessment criteria
People who may be issued with a badge after further assessment are those who are more than two years old and may be described as one or more of the following:
A person who :
- 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 meter.
- A person who has been certified by an expert assessor as having an enduring and substantial disability which causes them, during the course of a journey
- To be unable to walk to experience very considerable difficulty whilst walking (which may include very considerable psychological distress) or to be at risk of serious harm or pose a risk of serious harm to any other person when walking.
Any of the above three types of difficulty whilst walking could be caused by a physical disability or by a non-physical disability. In either case, the disability experienced by the applicant must endure for at least three years.
Children under the age of three may be eligible for a badge if they fall within either or both of the following descriptions:
- a child who must always be accompanied by bulky medical equipment which cannot be carried around with the child without great difficulty
- a child who must always be kept near a motor vehicle so that, if necessary, treatment for that condition can be given in the vehicle or the child can be taken quickly in the vehicle to a place where such treatment can be given.
Bulky medical equipment includes:
- ventilators
- section pumps
- feed pumps
- parenteral equipment
- syringe drivers
- oxygen administration equipment
- continual oxygen saturation monitoring equipment
- casts and associated medical equipment for the correction of hip dysplasia.