The AA needs to stay in its lane and leave disabled people alone

The AA has decided to enter the war on disabled people, for some reason. The president of the car insurance firm, Edmund King, has accused disabled people of ‘misusing’ blue badges. And of course, the mainstream media were frothing at the mouth.

The Sun went with:

Number of blue badge holders hits record high amid calls for crackdown on cheats.

The Mail specifically had to mention disability:

One in TWENTY drivers now have disability blue badge as councils urged to crack down on misuse.

And the Telegraph went with:

Fraud fears as one in 20 holds blue badge.

The AA warns that up to a fifth of the permits are being misused.

The Independent is a funny one because it originally went with:

Call for blue badge misuse crackdown as one in 20 hold ‘lifeline’ parking permit.

But it changed the headline to:

Call for blue badge crackdown amid fears of fake and stolen permits.

The AA gleefully piles on disabled people

The story itself, is actually nothing to do with ‘benefit cheats’ or ‘disability fakers’, but why let that get in the way of a good pile on disabled people. It was instead about stats from the Department for Transport showing there are now 3.07 million blue badges in circulation in England. This means just 5% of the population are blue badge holders.

But, despite it being the Easter bank holiday weekend, the media didn’t miss a chance to shit all over disabled people again. The stats were apparently analysed by the Press Association, which is how the story made its way to all the shitrags.

The PA couldn’t just stick to facts, as that wouldn’t make a very clickbaity story. So they had to instead twist how small a portion of the country have a blue badge. Because let’s be honest, 1 in 20 sounds much more significant than just 5%. And it’s much easier to set doubt in people’s minds that 1 in 20 people actually need a blue badge.

To further sow the seeds of doubt the story also points out that in 2019 the eligibility criteria for blue badges changed. Where previously only those with visible disabilities qualified, now it’s open to all disabilities.

What’s missing from this of course though is that you have to also qualify for a disability benefit such as PIP, which requires horrendous amounts of evidence. You can’t just say you have a disability and get a blue badge.

The AA responds, for some reason

But of course it didn’t end there, they had to explicitly state that people were faking, and call in an ‘expert’ to back them up. This being the president of the AA. Even though the AA has got fuck all to do with blue badges or accessible transport.

Edmund King from the AA said:

The blue badge scheme is a mobility lifeline for millions of legitimate users and their families.

Our concern is not the absolute number of badges issued but the estimates that up to one in five badges may be used by someone other than the holder or authorised user. .

The thing is, the Department for Transport stats don’t mention blue badge fraud. And the only actual sources for this ‘1 in 5’ figure are all of the articles quoting King on it. The only other reference before him is an Essex County Council blue badge investigations officer, who also doesn’t give a source.

It should be absolutely mindblowing that every single mainstream news outlet published this stat without verifying it, but then that wouldn’t suit the agenda.

As the PA has rightly pointed out, the department which records blue badge fraud doesn’t even exist anymore. The Fraud Authority was shut down in 2011. But that didn’t stop them using the 15 year old stat that blue badge fraud apparently costs £46m per year.

Blue badge fraud can’t have been that much of a concern to the government though, if it literally closed down the department that investigates it.

Deserving vs undeserving disabled

This is bad enough, but then King makes it all even worse:

We would welcome a crackdown on illegitimate use of badges to safeguard the deserving users.

There it is, that distinction between who really needs support and who’s obviously just faking it.

Because as it always comes down to, who gets to decide which disabled people are ‘deserving’? How are we deciding that? Dunk them in a river and if they float they’re disabled? Drop them and see if they land butter side up?

And why does a president of a car insurance company get to have any say in that?

In the current climate though, it’s not hard to deduce what’s meant by ‘deserving’ though. The very narrow view of disability that almost definitely means you use a wheelchair and need constant care. If you can go out and enjoy your life you’re not disabled enough, despite blue badges being a big reason so many disabled people can get out.

It’s also not a stretch to assume these articles are also part of the recent trend of hating people with neurodivergent and mental health conditions. Which are coincidentally happening whilst the government is trying (and failing) to prove these conditions are over diagnosed so they can cut benefits.

The timing is also not a coincidence, as from this week new claimants of Universal Credit who can’t work will have their benefit halved. And Motability just announced that disabled drivers will have their mileage allowance halved.

Let disabled people live their fucking lives

The government can claim it wants to get disabled people into work all it wants, but attempted PIP cuts, Motability reforms and Access to Work being slashed say otherwise. If it truly cared about supporting disabled people the press wouldn’t be being used to demonise us every fucking day.

More than anything, seeing constant stories about disabled fraudsters is fucking exhausting. Disabled people are tired of being used as the scapegoats for failing governments which have allowed billionaires to destroy this country.

We don’t want thousands in taxpayer benefits, ‘motability mercedes,’ or free parking, we just want to fucking live our lives.

Featured image via the Canary