I submitted a post some time ago in the old forum and did not get a response so am submitting a further post. Unlike many other local authorities, Blue Badges in Blackburn with Darwen are not administered by the Social Services Department but by the Rights, Advice and Entitlments Department.

Every person we see for a blue badge also gets a full benefit check - this has resulted in identifying potential benefits for customers - for example, last year we raised £500,000 in extra income - about half the time of 1 person is taken up doing take up work, ie under £15k per year in costs - that means that for every £1 invested we are rasing about £33 in extra income!!

I was chatting to a colleague recently and she mentioned a take up project that they were running in conjunction with GPs for over 75s and raised £2m at a cost of £140k - or about £15 for every £1 spent

My feeling is that the potential for take up using the blue badge scheme has not been considered seriously and I would welcome feedback on this

I feel that this is a good idea and would go a long way to ensuring take up is effective. But the chances of this happening across the board are remote. maybe on way to get this done is for areas wiling and able to take part to have a flyer available to be sent out with the blue badge application forms or on award of blue badges with contact details and an explanation of the service offered.

I noticed recently that Blue Badges in Angus are also administered by their Welfare Rights Team.