I applied to renew my Mum's Blue Badge about 8 weeks ago. She is in a care home now, with a mixed dementia diagnosis, heart failure and countless other problems that mean she can barely hobble now even on a good day, when she needs supervision to safely stand and use her rollator , and on the few occasions we have taken her to hospital in the last six months it has required two of us to get her in and out of the car, so the extra width of disabled spaces is essential.
However, the first renewal application I put in was rejected - they wanted more proof that she was eligible.
I had already sent them the letter about her dementia, a copy from the doctor that listed all her medications, and written in the appropriate boxes why she was taking them (main ones being the heart failure and dementia, and of course described her mobility issues.
I was at a bit of a loss as to what else I could send, but trawling through a pile of hospital letters from the last few years ( most of which were useless as they were almost all just appointment letters that didnt even say what the appointments were about).
But then I found a hospital discharge document from last summer, when Mum still lived in her own home - she had fallen in the house and seemed confused when one of her carers saw her later that day, so she spent a night in hospital before being sent home with 'virtual ward' visits to monitor her for a week. That letter mentioned the fall -quite important, i think - plus confusion, frailty and delirium amongst other things.
I sent a copy of that letter, plus another document I had initially overlooked, which was the letter saying that she had been awarded the higher level of Attendance Allowance last year.
Those did the trick- i had an email the same day saying that the application had now been approved.
To be honest though, I can't help suspecting that they initially turn down all but the most conclusive applications just because a lot of people will give up at that point.
If I hadn't found those two letters, I would have put that to the test by just re-sending one or two of the things I had already provided. It would have cost me nothing to try!
Fortunately, it didnt come to that
