Report criticises Wandsworth for ‘unacceptable’ delays in renewing Blue Badge

By Charlotte Lilywhite, Local Democracy Reporter

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 the 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 mum, referred to as Ms X, applied to renew her daughter’s Blue Badge in March last year, before it expired in June. The council started processing the 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 when they already had what they needed in the documents she had submitted. She said the 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 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.

“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.”

Pictured top: Wandsworth council offices (Picture: Charlotte Lilywhite)