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Why no Disabled Rail Cards for diabetics refused driving licence by DVLA

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Nicktheradiovosht

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi, I've been diabetic for 43 years and around 2 years ago I was advised to surrender my driving license due to no hypo awareness and lots of them, very unstable and unpredictable. I'm on CGM, pump use NightScout for real time monitoring to my smartwatch and phone.

I have a National Concessionary Bus Pass which makes a big difference but is no way equivalent to the flexibility of a car. I looked at railcards. Epileptic's can get them as can the blind and hearing aid users. Why not unstable diabetics with driving licence removed?

What bodies decided we qualify for bus passes but not railcards. Rail travel is massively expensive compared to busses. In my local area I can use the bus pass also on transport and rail. But nothing for more distant travel by rail?
 
Hi Nick

I agree. I think if your licence is removed then it should be the same as the other groups who are entitled to the railcards. I had to surrender my licence almost 1.5 years ago following a car accident (only me involved) and lack of hypo awareness. I too received a ENCTS pass which proved very useful but as you say not the same as having a car. If things had improved I could then re-apply for my driving licence after 12 months. Before the accident happened I was lined up to get a pump - this had been dragging on a long time and didn't actually happen until December 2017. When the ENCTS pass expired I re-applied as I still didn't have my driving licence. The paperwork stated I had to prove I'd had more than 2 hypos that required assistance in the last 12 months. I couldn't because I hadn't. However, the consultant wouldn't support my re-application for the driving licence until I'd been on the pump for 6 months and things were stable and hopefully the awareness was improved . I am still hoping to be prescribed CGM for the 640G or at least a Libre. So for this last 6 months I've had no driving licence and no ENCTS pass. This has made things very difficult indeed.
 
That does seem an unfair situation when your licence has been revoked and you qualify for a bus pass but not a railcard. Presumably you don't receive PIP or DLA which would make you eligible.
I would write to the Disabled Persons Railcard team and ask why certain medical conditions are included but a revoked licence due to hypo unawareness in diabetes is not covered.

I qualify for a disabled railcard as my driving licence was revoked on sight loss grounds but I hadn't considered that there are different eligibility qualifications in different schemes.

Very frustrating for you as I know how difficult life becomes when you can no longer drive.
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try a letter to the railcard people and perhaps my MP and see what happens.......

For getting an ENCTS pass I got a letter from my consultant saying:

"This is to confirm that my patient has to stop driving due to xxxxxxxxxxxx and yyyyyyyyyy. He/She is currently using public transport, any assistance will be greatly appreciated. "

This tipped the balance and on appeal I was given a pass. I was told that the appeal should not have been necessary as my original application should have been accepted. It said "I have been advised by my doctor at the hospital that I was not safe to drive". For the have you had a licence refused by DVLA question I answered correctly "no" but added "But I would be now!" as I had surrendered my licence as a useless document except for the photo ID.
 
The simple answer to the question about a disabled persons railcard is that you don’t qualify. All you need to do is look at eligibility criteria on the website to see this. It’s tough.

I haven’t been able to drive for three years, but not until I got a full rate mobility PIP award last year could I apply for a disabled persons railcard. It’s one of the benefits of having significant difficulty walking, if you can call it such.

Not having a driving licence is not considered a disability, for what I would have thought were obvious reasons.
 
I should add that some local authorities do allow concessionary travel passes to those who cannot drive for medical reasons (Manchester is one such) but these only apply to those living in the GMC area. So I could get to Manchester with my railcard, but not be able to avail myself of the GMC scheme once in Manchester. Seems fair enough to me, I don’t pay council tax to pay for it.

But as Matt says, such schemes often require that reason to be persistent.
 
I actually qualify for a Disabled Persons Railcard - but it is not really worth it.

It costs £20 a year, or £54 for three years. To save 1/3, I would need to spend £60 a year or £162 over 3 years. For occasional, local trips into town etc., I could not justify that, I'm afraid.

Last year, I took a whole day trip from my local station to Dundee, and it cost about £40.
 
Where I’m moving to, it’ll be the beginning of the cricket season at Old Trafford, so I could be using the train three or four days consecutively. And remember, I can’t drive. I may well need to get the train to Manchester or get off at Salford for seeing a pancreas specialist, unless I can blag patient transport like I do up here in gods own country.

I don’t think I can blag patient transport for the cricket, mind.
 
mikeyB said:
I don’t think I can blag patient transport for the cricket, mind.
Click to expand...
Could try citing mental health therapy.....🙂
 
Aye, Martin but I can’t tell fibs.....hang on a minute, what are you implying???:D
 
Nicktheradiovosht said:
Hi, I've been diabetic for 43 years and around 2 years ago I was advised to surrender my driving license due to no hypo awareness and lots of them, very unstable and unpredictable. I'm on CGM, pump use NightScout for real time monitoring to my smartwatch and phone.

I have a National Concessionary Bus Pass which makes a big difference but is no way equivalent to the flexibility of a car. I looked at railcards. Epileptic's can get them as can the blind and hearing aid users. Why not unstable diabetics with driving licence removed?

What bodies decided we qualify for bus passes but not railcards. Rail travel is massively expensive compared to busses. In my local area I can use the bus pass also on transport and rail. But nothing for more distant travel by rail?
Click to expand...

I had the same thought as I have hypo unawareness and was wondering why people with type1 who aren’t able to drive due to such reasons wouldn’t qualify for a disabled persons railcard
 
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