Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to issue her with a blue badge. There is no worthwhile outcome achievable by investigating now.

The complaint

1. Ms X’s representative complains the Council wrongly refused to issue Ms X with a blue badge.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Ms X’s father, Mr Z, applied for a blue badge on Ms X’s behalf in May 2024. He submitted Ms X’s Personal Independent Payment (PIP) letter from March 2023 which awarded Ms X 10 points for ‘Planning and Following a Journey’ (Descriptor E). Scoring 10 points would normally mean someone was automatically eligible for a blue badge.
6. The Council wrote and told Mr Z that it could not process Ms X’s application because the information to support it was over 12 months old. It later agreed to give Ms X an independent assessment based on other information submitted by Mr Z, but she was unsuccessful. The Council said Mr Z could apply again on Ms X’s behalf in 9 months’ time, or earlier if her circumstances changed.
7. Mr Z appealed and the Council informed him it would not consider his appeal because it had not processed his application.
8. The approach by the Council appears contradictory. Although its initial decision was to not process Ms X’s application, it later agreed to an independent assessment. Therefore, this should have triggered Ms X’s appeal rights. Instead, the Council told Mr Z it would not accept the appeal because Ms X’s application had not been processed.
9. However, we will not investigate this complaint for the following reasons:
• Appeals must be made within 28 days of the blue badge decision. Mr Z’s appeal was late and so the Council would have been entitled to reject it. Therefore, there is no significant injustice resulting from the Council’s refusal to consider it, albeit for potentially the wrong reasons;
• But in any case, nothing meaningful could be achieved now by investigating because of the passage of time. It is open to Mr Z to submit another application, this time with a PIP letter issued within 12 months of the date of the application.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by investigating now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman