Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms B’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to issue her with a Blue Badge. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault with the actions taken by the Council to warrant an Ombudsman investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms B says the Council did not take into consideration her hidden disabilities and medical needs when it refused to issue her with a Blue Badge. Ms B says it took the Council six months to refuse her application and when she spoke to council staff on the phone she found them intimidating and rude. Ms B says it did not state on the application that she would have to have a mobility assessment and she tried numerous times to contact the Council but could not get through. Ms B says she meets the criteria for a Blue Badge and wants the Council to issue her with one.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Ms B and the Council provided. I sent Ms B a copy of my draft decision for comment.

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What I found

4. Ms B applied to the Council for a Blue Badge and asked it to consider her hidden disabilities of fibromyalgia and Arthritis. Ms B says the Council did not consider her medical evidence and she found council staff intimidating and rude.
5. The Department for Transport issues Guidance to Councils for providing Blue Badges to disabled people with severe mobility problems. The Guidance introduced specific criteria for assessing an applicant’s eligibility which was not a feature of the previous scheme.
6. The Guidance sets out two types of eligibility criteria for issuing Blue Badges: ‘Eligible without further assessment’ and ‘Eligible subject to further assessment’. To qualify under the latter, “an applicant must have a permanent and substantial disability that means they cannot walk, or means they have very considerable difficulty walking.”
7. The Guidance identifies specific factors for Councils to consider when assessing an applicant’s eligibility for a badge:
• Excessive pain
• Breathlessness
• Distance and length of time to walk
• Pace
• Manner of walking
• Danger to life for applicants with serious chest and lung conditions.
8. The guidance says that applicants who can walk more than 80 metres and do not demonstrate very considerable difficulty in walking through any other factors would not be deemed as eligible.
9. Ms B does not automatically qualify for a badge under the Guidance and applied for a Blue Badge. In order to consider whether she is eligible subject to further assessment, the Council invited Ms B to a mobility assessment on 21 January. The Council says Ms B did not attend or let them know she was unable to attend.
10. Ms B says she tried to contact the Council to explain her difficulties in attending the appointment but was unable to get through, and says, when she spoke to staff they were intimidating and rude. The Ombudsman could not say there is any evidence of administrative fault with the way the Council considered Ms B’s application for a Blue Badge and could not make a finding on what was said in a telephone conversation he was not party to. Ms B can ask the Council to arrange an assessment in order it can properly assess whether she meets the criteria for a Blue Badge.

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Final decision

11. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault with the actions taken by the Council to warrant an Ombudsman investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman