Transport: blue badges and concessional travel case studies

London Borough of Bromley

2010/11

A NFI blue badge to deceased persons’ records match resulted in a woman being convicted of fraud and fined £181.

As a result of the match, London Borough of Bromley’s parking services team put the badge on a hot-list for traffic wardens and, when the woman challenged two penalty notices she had received, they were able to confirm that she was using the badge that belonged to her deceased mother.

When questioned by the fraud team, she admitted using the badge on two occasions.

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Birmingham City Council

2008/09

As a result of investigating their NFI blue badge to Department of Work and Pensions deceased matches, Birmingham City Council has made improvements to the way that the badges are administered. The review of the NFI matches found six cases where applications had been made either following the death of the holder or where an application had been made prior to the death of the holder, but the badge had been collected afterwards. In one case, the application for the badge had been made two months after the death of the badge holder and the police were called in to investigate. No prosecution was undertaken and the matter was dealt with informally by the police, but the case highlighted the need for an improved system for administering badges.

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Portsmouth City Council

2008/09

A review of a NFI concessionary travel matches found that a husband had claimed travel tokens on behalf of his wife for at least the last seven years despite the fact that she had died in 1991. The authority has recovered the remaining travel tokens and the value of the previous years’ tokens.