Blue light
 

Just received my Blue Light Card on the back of my Defense Discount Card; I also understand the MOD are in the process of progressively issuing a Veterans ID cards; Having searched for previous posts on this subject perhaps not all are aware of the benefits.
Defense Discount Service provides discounts both online and on the high street for members of the Armed Forces, Veterans and Armed Forces Community.
Defense Discount Service is home of the Defense Privilege Card, the vetted discount card that can be used in stores, restaurants and venues to obtain armed forces discounts. This discount card allows Veterans and the Armed Forces Community to have a card that can allow them to receive military discounts.

Blue Light Card provides those in the NHS, emergency services, social care sector and armed forces with discounts online and in-store. Blue Light Card also works with small and large companies across the UK to get involved in supporting the Blue Light community through offering our members discounts through Blue Light Card.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/n...ervice-leavers
https://www.dover.gov.uk/Community/A...an-ID-Card.pdf
https://www.forces.net/military-life...gen-about-them

Nice reminder.

I have a Defence Discount Card. Not everyone takes it, but the list of those who do is quite extensive. Big and smaller names, but I find its always worth asking whether it helps when buying something.

It's really frustrating a couple of my favourite eating places ("Bills") for one are now insisting on the light blue card after using the defence card with them for a number of years

Clive

According to this update, HM Armed Forces Veterans are entitled to a free Defence Privilege Card wef 1Nov2022 by using the code VETGATEWAY19 at checkout :-

https://support.veteransgateway.org....etail/a_id/460

However, it still demands payment at the moment.

An increasing number of places that have usually taken the "defence card" now say that they want to see the Blue Light card instead, I rang The defence services people who said they would look into it and am waiting to get a response, should not take long as they are based at the same address

Thanks, cliver. Not knowing too much about the two systems I get much the same impression as you, that there are more discounts available to Blue Light members than those offered by DDS. If they are operated in parallel from the same location, and Service Personnel can apply for the Blue Light Card anyway, wouldn't it be simpler and more efficient if the DDS card was simply subsumed into the Blue Light Card system? I've probably missed something important and have anyway still to provide sufficient proof for eligibility for either card (last P60 only so far). At least there seems to be a growing realisation that those who serve or have served should be valued and acknowledged along with the Emergency Services, etc.

"Bills" are still showing on the DDS website. You need a code(from the website) as well as showing your card.

Still does not accept VETGATEWAY19 & wants payment.

I gave up and bought a blue light card. Defence one was less and less useful

Both DDS and Blue Light physical cards are becoming less acceptable due to Walts borrowing/stealing them and getting discounts. The apps which generate a unique code each time they are used for a particular retailer/service seem to be required more frequently.

NEO

Although there is indeed a lot of overlap of offers between the Blue Light Card and the Defence Discount Service, there are a few outliers that are only offered on one of the cards.

Examples are the British Airways 10% off - only on DDS as it is part of British Airways Armed Forces Corporate Covenant agreement (note on DDS BA are not in listed the alphabetical drop-down list currently – just use the search box using the word ‘British’).

The 10% off at ASDA is a strictly Blue Light Card offer (currently ends 31stt December 2022 but may be extended again hopefully).

Best option if you use these a lot – get both cards!

My original query to DDS stated:
The Veterans Gateway states that the card is available from 01 November without charge using the code VETGATEWAY19 (see image below). I have been registered on the DDS site since 2012. I have logged in to the site, clicked the card link, uploaded id and entered the code but the site is still requesting that I pay £4.99. Am I doing something wrong or is this not yet available?
The response was:
We are checking your ID you have uploaded but we still have not received the payment for your card. You can complete this in the website or the mobile application. The ID may take 48 hours to be checked, if we have found any problems you will receive an email from us. Your query has been responded to automatically using your account status to try and help with your query. If this response does not help, please reply to this message and a member of the team will get back to you.
To which I replied:
The point is not to progress the card application by paying £4.99. I am trying to use the promo code from the Veterans Gateway "VETGATEWAY19" but the site is not accepting this.

We are now a week later; the promo code is still not being accepted and the team has not got back to me. Why am I not surprised!

mabmac, thank you. You have saved me the trouble of describing exactly the same experience, and described it better to boot. I am now waiting for my Record of Service to be provided so that I can apply for the Blue Light Card, which seems worth paying for as it provides more and better discounts than DDS anyway. I am also applying for the Veterans ID Card, another process that seems endless. I understand that it is Minister of State for Veterans Affairs Johnny Mercer's intention that every UK veteran is in possession of one next year. He was sacked by Johnson, then reappointed to the interim cabinet, only to be sacked again by Truss, then reappointed by Sunak. Guess what happens next! My guess is that it will all be blown away next Thursday anyway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mercer_(politician)

Chugalug2,

Have you applied for a Veterans ID card or do you mean that you're planning to ? I can't find an application process, only that there is a yet to be notified roll out date for them.

Although I'm not sure where they'd be useful when people can use the DDS/Blue Light card for day to day discounts and GP/NHS services simply ask to be notified of Veteran status ?

NEO

NEO, sorry to have not been clearer. You are right of course; my Veterans ID card is as nebulous as my 'free' DDS one. The advantage to having one though, if it ever transpired, is that it would instantly confirm my status where there are no formal Blue Light/DDS arrangements (for instance at USA or other venues). It might even be useful for the GP/NHS services you instance. I'm pretty sure my GP has no idea that I'm a veteran, nor my local hospital either. They're hardly going to take my word for it, and any possible decisions made regarding status would have to be taken there and then. Once the cards are available, they would be recognised as confirmation of having served and enable subsequent action...or would they?

At least I have my tin Vet badge and should perhaps be content with that!

It's a simple process to inform your GP surgery that you are a military veteran and that you would like the military covenant to be respected. Your status should then be recorded on your NHS records that would follow you to a hospital. It is just a phone call.

Thanks for the info beardy. What sort of system is that though? Every Walt could do the same (and no doubt already has). No wonder the NHS is as dysfunctional as it is. A classic British lash up, a wide-open opportunity to abuse the system paired off with a bureaucratic unwillingness to issue IDs to those entitled to them. I well remember the sense of loss at having to hand in my F1250. My premonitions were all too justified it seems.

Beardy/Chugalug 2,

This appears to be pot luck. My surgery asked to see (quote) "Some form of proof" of my status, so I took my Certificate of Service in a couple of years ago.

Of course the preferential treatment only applies to health issues arising as a direct consequence of ones service.

NEO

Chugalug2. I went through the process a few months back. Most NHS trusts have a mental support branch. I contacted them ref PTSD. After a few phone and email consultations they agreed I have it, but at such a low level that I can look after it myself. However, they did flag up my records as a vet and a PTSD sufferer. Also a couple of useful local phone numbers should they be needed. Hope this helps.

This “Certificate of Service” has been mentioned before. I never received anything like that when I left the RAF in the mid 1990s.

I got a plastic laminated tamper proof binder with the Certificate, rank, qualifications and how I'd departed, eg By Choice.

NEO

I certainly received nothing like that. Can I ask when you left the service?

June 1990.

NEO

Certificate of Discharge/Transfer to Reserve - RAF Form 856. It was a single piece of A4 and mine was presented in an Air Force blue plastic covered folder. Left the RAF in May ‘89.

Interesting. What were your terms of service? Commissioned or non commissioned?

Left in 2005 after 30 years commissioned service (5 RN, 25 RAF) All I got was a computer printout of my service record. Never got a thank you, but the pension is welcome.
I use the DDS card in Go Outdoors, seems to be the only place near me that takes it.

Herod, thanks for the info and sorry to hear of your service-related medical problems. Mercifully the only lingering effect suffered by me is medium to severe hearing loss after too many Herc walk rounds with the ATM going, and only small plastic earplugs to ward off the inevitable results. The NHS have come up trumps with two bespoke hearing aids issued there and then after just two appointments, and free batteries thereafter!
It seems that with or without an ID each case is dealt with individually anyway, so perhaps the issue of one is not that crucial. I shall keep pushing for my Record of Service in order to obtain a Blue Light card and be content with that, while hoping that Johnny Mercer succeeds in his aim to get us all Veteran ID Cards, in between his various hirings and firings of course.
Perhaps we should all band together as a group of angry old men. It seems that if you glue yourself to the tarmac you are brought tea and biscuits by the police, Snowdrops in the case of RAF runways presumably....

Non-commissioned, 22 years - left after 9 with ‘free’ PVR (avionics trade over-subscribed)

Maybe that's the difference.. From other responses it sounds like us commissioned bods weren't included and left to our own devices.

Shy - I've used my Pension P60 - seems to work OK. (assuming you were on 38/16 ToS)

Non commissioned. Similar to Speedywheels, signed for 22 left after 15 having given a years' notice 3 years into the 4 year time bar imposed post Pilot course.

NEO

Good idea, thanks! :ok:

(Yes, I was).

Quick update. After a month of correspondence with the Defence Discount help team, the code VETGATEWAY19 has now worked and the website is now showing me as having a card. I will now wait for the card to arrive by post. Although it is promised to arrive within 14 days, I am cognisant of the postal strikes so anticipate that it is likely to take longer.

I have had my Esso Card courtesy of Blue Light for a month now and getting good savings. Between 3 and 6 pence per litre depending on grade of fuel. A bonus is that my local Esso station is cheaper than Morrisons which is right next door.

Final update. My free (using code VETGATEWAY19) Defence Discount card has arrived in the post today.

Thanks, applied for my card today and the process was painless using the coupon code.

Just renewed my card using VETGATEWAY19 in the promotional code box - worked instantly

Just worked for me

Tried on the veterans gateway website but when I clicked on apply for the card - it took me to 'page not found'

Hi Crab, you need to go to the Defence Discount site https://www.defencediscountservice.co.uk/ and apply for it there. You need to register on the site or log in if already registered, You will then be able to access the menu item "Privilege Card".