Council Forced to Apologise Over Blue Badge Delay
Took four months to process renewal for disabled woman
Council has launched an investigation into the issuing of Blue Badges after the case
October 14, 2024
Wandsworth Council has been forced to apologise after delaying renewing a disabled woman’s Blue Badge. The woman’s mum, who complained on her behalf, claimed Wandsworth Council’s approach made it harder for disabled people to receive support.
The woman, named Y in a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report, had to wait around four months for her Blue Badge to be renewed due to the council’s blunder. She has autism, ADHD, seizures and mental health issues.
The woman’s mother, referred to as Ms X, applied to renew Y’s Blue Badge in March last year, before it expired in June. The council started processing Ms X’s application in May and an assessor contacted her for more information about Y’s conditions.
Ms X complained the assessor had asked for excessive information about Y’s conditions when they already had what they needed in the documents she had submitted. She said the council’s approach made it ‘harder for disabled people to receive support’, according to the report, and that its questions ‘were intrusive, unnecessary and insulting’.
The council approved Y’s Blue Badge renewal in July, more than three weeks after it expired. It responded to her complaint in August explaining the assessor could not open the evidence Ms X had submitted with her application, which is why they had asked for extra information. The authority apologised for not explaining this at the time.
But the Ombudsman said the council should also apologise for the delay in processing Y’s Blue Badge renewal, which was caused by an internal administrative error that meant the application was not immediately passed on to an assessor to review. The report said this caused Ms X ‘frustration and concern’.
The report added, “The council has already apologised to Ms X for requesting information about Y when it already held this and explained it has revised its staff guidance to avoid recurrence of this problem. It had not however explained the reasons for the delay in processing the renewal to Ms X. The council advises residents to submit Blue Badge renewals in advance of expiry, which Ms X did. The council took approximately five weeks longer than the recommended 12 weeks to complete its review of Y’s renewal.”
The council agreed to apologise to Ms X for the ‘avoidable delay’ in processing Y’s Blue Badge renewal. It is investigating rolling out a digital Blue Badge scheme to tackle the theft of badges from disabled residents, over which Ms X also raised concerns.
Labour councillor Jenny Yates, cabinet member for transport, said, “Sadly, abuse of the Blue Badge system is widespread in London and in other big cities, and this has fuelled a rise in the number of vehicle break-ins with thieves targeting cars belonging to disabled drivers to steal their badges. This affects some of society’s most vulnerable who suffer the anguish, heartache and financial burden of having their cars broken into.
“We have apologised for the delay in replacing the resident’s badge in this case and are committed to addressing the issues raised so we can improve the services we provide to our community. This includes investigating the implementation of a digital Blue Badge scheme for disabled drivers.
Charlotte Lillywhite - Local Democracy Reporter