Changing your name on a Blue Badge, bus pass or Railcard

The Blue Badge#

GOV.UK's instructions are brief: contact your local council to change the details on your Blue Badge, ask for a replacement badge if your name has changed, and carry on using your old badge until the new one arrives. The Department for Transport's booklet for badge holders in England lists a change of name, "for example by marriage, civil partnership, deed poll", among the changes to tell your council about. GOV.UK's Blue Badge page finds your council from your postcode.

Each council then runs its own process. Two examples:

• Essex County Council asks you to email its Blue Badge team with the details and scans of your evidence, or to post photocopies. For a new name it accepts a valid passport or driving licence, a marriage or divorce certificate, or a deed poll. If you want the badge reissued in your new name you say so, and every replacement badge costs £10.
• Surrey County Council asks you to tell it through its Blue Badge contact page, and charges £10 if a new badge is needed with the name change before the old one expires.

GOV.UK says a Blue Badge costs up to £10 in England and £20 in Scotland, and is free in Wales. For Northern Ireland it points to a different process on nidirect, whose Blue Badge pages say nothing about a change of name, so ask the Blue Badge team named there.

Older and disabled person's bus passes#

In England, passes come under the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme, and GOV.UK's bus pass page sends you from your postcode to your council, or in some areas to a local transport authority. Their processes differ. Bristol City Council says that to change the name on your bus pass you need a replacement, which you order and pay for by phone, at £10. West Sussex County Council says you will not be sent a new pass automatically if your details, such as your name, have changed, and asks you to apply for one online.

In Scotland, the bus pass is a National Entitlement Card. Transport Scotland says to contact your council, or SPT in its area, to replace the card if you want to change your name, and to provide evidence of the change when you apply; you can also apply online at getyournec.scot, but as a new application with all your evidence again. Your old card stops working once you apply for the replacement, you pay fares until the new one arrives, and that can take up to 2 weeks.

In Wales, Transport for Wales issues the Concessionary Travel Card. Its questions and answers ask you to let it know at tfw.wales/travelcards if your details change, and say you will need documents for any change of name. Card holders manage their card online with their National Insurance number or card number, date of birth and postcode.

In Northern Ireland, Translink issues 60+ and Senior SmartPasses. nidirect does not describe changing the name on a pass you already hold; for a first application, it says that if your birth certificate is in a different name from your form, you must provide official documents supporting the change. Ask at a Translink bus or rail station, or through Translink's concession passes page.

London's Freedom Pass#

The Freedom Pass is run by London Councils, and its change of details page covers both older and disabled person's passes. It asks for proof of a new name, and lists a current passport, a current driving licence, a European identity card, a change of name deed, a marriage certificate or a civil partnership certificate. You send a copy by email or post, with your previous details and your date of birth so that it can find your record; the site also says you can update your details online by logging in to your account. Its conditions of use say the pass may be used only by the holder whose name appears on the front. The page does not say whether a new pass follows straight away.

Oyster cards and photocards#

An Oyster card is linked to your name only if you register it. TfL's conditions of carriage say you register a card by adding it to an online Oyster and contactless account, and that if any of your details change afterwards you must update them as soon as possible. Photocards are different: the conditions say a photocard can be used only by the person whose name and photograph appear on it. TfL's public pages do not explain how to change the name on a 60+, Zip or other photocard, and its photocard help sits behind a sign-in, so ask TfL through its help and contact page.

If you load a Railcard discount onto your Oyster, the Railcard site says the Oyster card must be registered in your name.

Railcards#

The Railcard help centre separates two cases. If you bought your Railcard online, you change your address or phone number yourself in your Railcard account, but a new name goes through customer services: you email a copy of your enrolled deed poll or your marriage certificate, and pay a £10 administration fee. If you bought it at a station, you take the Railcard to a staffed station with a copy of the same documents, and pay the same fee. Railcard terms say only the named cardholder can use the card.

An unenrolled deed poll, the ordinary kind and the kind we draft, is not on that list. Enrolling one costs £53.05 and can take several months, GOV.UK says, so ask Railcard customer services, through its contact page, whether it will accept anything else before you pay. When you next buy a Railcard, the Senior Railcard's help pages say to enter your name exactly as it appears on the passport or driving licence you use to prove your age, so a new card follows your new documents.