Nimbusdisability Reviews 

I applied for the renewal of my son's Access Card 3 months ago and the £15 renewal fee was taken from my bank account.
I have not received my renewed card or any correspondence regarding the status of my application. I've also sent several emails and tried to phone but no response.
I had hoped to have the renewed card for a theme park trip in October, but ended up not going.

I am extremely disappointed with my experience of the Access Card service.

I submitted an application for my son in July, requesting recognition of his additional needs, including the +1 / Essential Companion symbol. My son has significant developmental delays and requires a level of supervision far beyond what would ordinarily be expected of a child his age. His needs are supported by professional assessments, a middle-rate DLA care award and evidence from his educational setting.

Despite providing detailed information and evidence, the Essential Companion symbol was not awarded. I have since spent months trying to obtain a clear explanation as to why the evidence was considered insufficient and, more importantly, what further evidence would actually be required to meet their criteria.

The communication has been appalling. I have waited almost two months for responses, had to chase repeatedly and, even when I have received replies, my specific questions have not been properly addressed. My most recent detailed email, sent on 1 October, set out four straightforward questions and asked for clarification. As of November, I have still not received a response.

What I find particularly disappointing is the complete lack of understanding and support shown towards families of children with additional needs.

As parents, we already spend an enormous amount of time advocating for our children, gathering evidence, completing assessments and repeatedly explaining and justifying their needs to different organisations. It is exhausting. An organisation whose purpose is to improve accessibility and support disabled people should be helping to make that process easier, not creating yet another battle.

I am not asking for special treatment or an award without evidence. I am asking for transparency, clear communication and a reasonable explanation of how a decision has been reached. If the evidence provided is insufficient, surely the bare minimum is to explain precisely what is missing and give families a reasonable opportunity to address it.

Instead, I have been left chasing for months, repeating information and asking the same questions, with very little meaningful engagement.

The irony is that an organisation designed to remove barriers to accessibility has become another barrier in itself.

I genuinely expected a much more understanding, supportive and professional service. Sadly, my experience has been one of frustration, unnecessary delays and a complete lack of meaningful communication. I would urge the organisation to reconsider how it handles applications involving children with additional needs and, more importantly, how it treats the parents who are already doing everything they can to advocate for them.

Discusting company. Prey on the disabled, with the promise of cheaper tickets then NEVER respond to you

We are still waiting to hear from them a month later and they are ignoring ALL our attempts at contact.

Absolutely shocking customer service from Nimbus Disability, and a terrible new system forced on families by Merlin Entertainments. I recently applied and paid the £15 fee for a Ride Access Pass for my son.

We are hoping to visit the parks this week, but trying to get this pass processed in time is proving to be an absolute nightmare.

Instead of actual support, you are immediately hit with an automated email threatening that if you dare send a follow-up message to check on the progress, your position will be reset and you will be pushed to the back of the queue!

The anxiety and stress this causes families who just want to plan a straightforward day out for their children is completely unacceptable.

Merlin taking away on-the-day park registrations and dumping the entire workload onto Nimbus has created a massive bottleneck, and it’s the paying customers who are suffering for it.

Families deserve far better communication and a much fairer system.

As an autistic individual, professional with significant experience of working with autistic people, and a mother to three autistic children, I am appalled by Nimbus Disability's service. We applied for an Access Card ahead of a planned trip to Zip World this summer. It took an unacceptable 60 days for them to deny his need for one to one support—instead offering an urgent toilet access and struggles with crowds symbol.

To offer a toilet pass to a child whose primary, life-threatening risk is sudden elopement demonstrates that the assessors completely failed to read or comprehend the clinical documentation provided. I supplied a full NHS diagnostic report and a detailed Health Visitor report explicitly detailing his severe elopement risks (including a dangerous tendency to make a beeline for water, requiring physical tethers). Yet, this was entirely dismissed.

It is a bizarre contradiction that this service frames itself as looking beyond the ambiguities of DLA/PIP letters, yet uses the lack of those exact documents to gatekeep access and ignore comprehensive NHS paperwork.

Because popular family venues like Zip World (otherwise, and ironically, an amazing place to visit with neurodivergent children) have outsourced their legal duties under the Equality Act to Nimbus- making this card the sole means to get a companion ticket- these bureaucratic failures have severe, real-world consequences for exhausted carers.

They took my money immediately, wasted my scarce time, and completely failed to deliver a competent service. I have requested a full refund and refuse to jump through further hoops for a supposedly "disability-led" service that replicates the exact doubt, suspicion, and prejudice that neurodivergent people face daily.

Beyond the material costs, exhausted carers do not have the time or mental resources to continually cater to the unreasonable whims of faceless assessors, especially with 60 day gaps between communications.

Perhaps Nimbus should publish the exact professional and clinical qualifications of the staff they employ to vet applications. The public deserves to know what credentials give these hidden assessors the authority to minimise severe care needs and completely overrule the expert assessments of NHS professionals.

I would say I would like to see them care for my child for a day, though given their evaluation of his needs it seems inevitable that this would result in grave circumstances.

Disability tax anyone?

Even 1 is not accurate to rate this company.
I am extremely disappointed with Nimbus Card, an organisation that claims to support disabled people, yet my experience has been the opposite.
Despite having had a companion approved for many years by Nimbus themselves and being registered with almost 50 theatres where I have booked tickets with a companion, Nimbus decided not to award the companion symbol on this occasion. They stated that, according to them, it is not something I am allowed to be awarded, despite the extensive evidence I provided showing my long-standing need for a companion when attending venues.
I have multiple long-term disabilities and conditions that require the essential support of a companion when attending venues and events, including spinal osteoarthritis, sacroiliac joint dysfunction, plantar fasciitis, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis in my hands and wrists, hypermobility Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS), and PTSD. Without a companion. it is not safe.
They also continued asking for more and more evidence even though I had already submitted substantial documentation. Their process created unnecessary barriers, imposed additional administrative burdens, and resulted in disabled access needs being subjected to excessive scrutiny. Their process is dismissive, exhausting, and unnecessarily obstructive.
I have sent Nimbus Card many emails to complain about the way my cases have been handled, but they have not offered any solution complying with the Equality Act 2010. On one occasion, they stated that they were going to send me the card, but the card never arrived. I complained about this as well, yet again received no response. The lack of any effective complaint system or accountability process is extremely concerning for an organisation that claims to support disabled people.
What makes this particularly concerning is that the Equality Act 2010 places a duty on service providers to avoid discrimination against disabled people and to make reasonable adjustments to ensure disabled people are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. A companion or essential companion arrangement is a reasonable adjustment that enables disabled people to access theatres and events safely and equally.
Theatres and venues that rely solely on Nimbus Card assessments while disregarding substantial existing evidence of disability-related access needs also act contrary to the principles and duties set out in the Equality Act 2010. Service providers have their own independent legal responsibility to consider reasonable adjustments and accessibility needs fairly and individually. Delegating decisions entirely to a third-party scheme without properly considering existing evidence or long-established companion arrangements risks creating barriers for disabled people rather than removing them.
Ignoring extensive evidence of an established need for a companion, while creating additional barriers and repeatedly demanding further proof, can amount to discriminatory treatment. It places disabled people through unnecessary stress, scrutiny, and obstacles when trying to access services that should already be accessible.
This experience demonstrates a failure to recognise and appropriately accommodate well-established access requirements, despite extensive supporting evidence and a long history of companion approval across numerous theatres and venues.
Experiences such as this result in disabled people being unsupported and invalidated by an organisation that is supposed to advocate for accessibility and inclusion.

Really disappointed with this company. We have been members of multiple theatres' access schemes for many years with no issues at all. However, a number of theatres are now switching to needing Nimbus cards to get access facilities for disabled people. I applied for a Nimbus card for my relative more than three weeks ago - with the website claiming a 10 day turnaround. My family member receives enhanced PIP for an indefinite and ongoing period so there should be no queries with the application at all. However, other than an initial confirmation email, I haven't heard from Nimbus since - despite them taking the £15 charge from my bank instantly. I replied to their email as requested a week ago to chase an update, still nothing. They also threaten that any further emails will generate a new ticket, and will push my enquiry back to the bottom of the list. I have tried to ring them multiple times - they keep you on hold for 30 minutes and then cut you off. As a company that is supposedly legitimate and that is being relied on by big companies to manage their access customers, Nimbus is utterly disappointing and definitely not providing a fit-for-purpose service. I would give zero stars if I could. I will be contacting my bank for a charge back if I don't hear anything within the next week.

Such a disrespectful service. We have been waiting since the beginning of October and no card, no response and they keep on rejecting emails and phone calls. They have also taken the money so clearly not interested now.

** it seems the only trust pilot page the company looks at is ‘access card’. You should cut and paste your complaint to that page too **

Oh what happened Nimbus. I applied to renew my card on 19th August (as of writing it’s now 16th October.) throughout this time I have emailed 11 times and rang 7 times. I’ve tried the ‘urgent’ email but all to no avail. No answer to the phone, no email response. 6 weeks later I receive the same reply for each email sent - all sent together. To each complaint letter asking for unnecessary further proof. This was done but still nothing. Weeks later. No card, no reply, nothing.
Claimed the application fee back via a bank charge back.
Such a shame as it was a great scheme and ran well 3 years ago. Looking at the other reviews, I’m not alone.
Save your money and stress by avoiding the application

** update 23rd October **. After requesting a charge back from my bank. I received an almost immediate response advising if I wanted to proceed with the application a further £35 would be required to cover charge back costs. (As well as more paperwork proof of my disability). I really can’t decide if this is a scam or utter incompetence?

** update 27th October **

The company have now challenged the chargeback!
PLEASE BE AWARE. THIS IS A SCAM.
1 take immediate payment
2 ghost the customer
3 ignore any complaint, request for refund, do not answer phone
4 automate an email advising any complaint will go to the bottom of the list and remain unread. (Sounds unbelievable but is true)
5 receive a response 3 months later to request further 35 to proceed to with application
6 challenge a chargeback from the bank

Shocking trying to take advantage of people’s disability.

In an era of communications, this organisation must work in caves, as they've not processed the original application submitted FOUR weeks ago, nor replied to follow up emails.

They are doing a disservice not only to organisations who they a convincing (for a fee, no doubt) to handle their disabled customers access, but also to the disabled customers themselves with their extended application processing times and a wall of silence.

When you find a concert, football match or other event requires an Access card for the companion element, the clock is often ticking, and we've missed out on a couple of events since the application was submitted. Their 'Eligibility Assessors' are on £25k/year and the fact the organisation is now processing Disabled Railcard Applications is another possible area of concern.

Extremely poor customer service. No email replies after weeks. Even urgent emails not replied too. I have a disabled daughter who is allowed a companion, but I can’t get a response from anyone. All her DLA evidence has been sent a month ago. No one answers the phone. I have paid for the card.
These are vulnerable people. She wants to go to these places with support from the card. Really poor

The easiest description for this lot and its founder Martin Austin, MBE - “complete waste of space”. They have NEVER answered any of my emails. With the same information given to them I was allowed a Blue Badge; BUT they want more “unspecified” information. As a last resort I intend to take them to the Small Claims Court to recover my application fee of £15 its not the amount now but the principle. They really are a despicable organisation.

If I could have left negative stars I would. They are Impossible to get hold of - never respond. Never had an issue before but this year they’ve been a total waste of time.

I want to bring something to your attention regarding Nimbus cards

We tried to look for accessible tickets for a concert for myself and my partner(who is a wheelchair user) and was told we needed a Nimbus access card. Had to Google as id never heard of it before. Turns out we had to pay £15 for one. As we couldn't find any documents of proof of disability, we had to acquire a doctor's letter, which cost us another £30. So, after a police interrogation of my partner's health issues, we put away our application online, only to receive a reply that they needed even more information, when everything they need to know is on the doctor's letter. Now we don't know what to do as we have already been charged £15 and can't access our application to update details. They don't answer emails and we are kept waiting on the phone for no one to answer. Feel like giving up but we don't want to lose out on shows and we've already paid £45. Sadly, because of Nimbus dragging things out and other complications, we have already lost out on a show we wanted to see. We are so frustrated. We cant find any other documents as proof of disability. The website isn't user friendly either

Nimbus make life very difficult for disabled people. They sell themselves as making disabled people's lives easier but do the opposite. They're a random, untrained 3rd party that I have to give deeply personal medical information to in order to get access to events that I previously had easy access to. I've already been assessed by PIP, UC, and many diagnostic assessments, by qualified people. I shouldn't need to give all of that to nimbus for them to agree it's real and decide that yes I do need the adjustments. They're just money grabbers and they shouldn't exist

Absolute disgrace of business.
Nobody answers the phone, just leave you waiting listening to automated garbage for 30 minutes, then abruptly cut you off. Have never yet spoke with a person via phone and I've tried several times.

An unnecessary middle man company which has the power to decide what disability services you require - disability benefits aren’t enough. Data mining at best. Outrageous. Boomtown are sell outs for including this company!

Total scam to take £15 off disabled people.
Their customer service does not happen.
After application I sent 3 e-mails and never got a reply to any of them.

If i could give 0 stars I would.
My daughter has had a card for years with no issues in application, due to her hypermobility and struggling to walk long distances and stand in queues, her card was due to expire at the end of August so I applied at the beginning of August to make sure I had time for it to be dealt with before it actually expired.
At the beginning of September I had an email to say they couldn't go further as the paperwork was out of date, it was dated 2023 apparently it must be within 2 years. I contacted them back via email to ask how we could get it sorted asap as she really needed it and due to being discharged from hospital services as she had exceeded their support and was told how to live with her condition, doesn't mean her condition magically goes away and people don't go back every few years to get the same diagnosis just for the sake of getting an access card,unfortunately she doesn't quite fit the criteria for DLA due to being able to walk, she just gets pain from walking and standing and occasionally has to use the wheelechair but again because it's not used on a daily basis she doesn't qualify for DLA. Therefore we have now had major issues with nimbus in renewing her card.
I have gone onto the website and read every part they have stated in their mandate for guidance and procedure and this just isn't matching up to how they have they dealt with this.
On their website it states documents should be 'recent' doesn't specify 2 years like they are claiming, her letters were 2023 I'd say that's pretty recent, website says letters need to confirm diagnosis, her letters do.
Website also states they may ask for a resubmission of letters due to not being able to keep information due to GDPR, resubmission in my opinion means resubmitting prior paperwork that had been used for the prior access card, if they wanted new paperwork it would be a new submission.
Also on the renewal section it states that prior applications will be renewed automatically.
A month after my email asking them for advice on how to move forward, I still hadn't had any response.
I had called them on numerous occasions and after 30mins of not having the call answered, it automatically cuts you off and you have to start all over again!!!!
In the end I sent an email to their urgent inbox and low and behold I had numerous replies in one day.
However in these replies not once did they try to help, just kept telling me that without new paperwork they could not submit the form.
They practically copied and pasted parts of the website I had already read and taken notes of and kept repeating it, not even answering my questions.
In the end I told them to stick it and give me a refund of the £15 I had paid, it's not fair in the slightest and total disability discrimination, disabilities do not just go away and become better, not everyone is entitled to DLA or pip, they struggle enough with completing numerous forms to prove their struggles, they don't need extra pressure from a company that claims to want to help.
Wouldn't recommend at all.

If there was zero I would rate my experience as that. I applied for a renewal card and required it urgently so I went through there urgent protocol. I filled in the form and sent everything they asked of me regarding medical evidence as I don’t receive pip or DLA. I even sent my LCWA as extra evidence. I tried calling and if they don’t answer in 30 minutes you are automatically cut off and have to try again. I received an email that simply said they don’t accept LCWA (which I already knew, I sent it just as extra evidence). There was no mention of my medical evidence that I sent in, all of which is what required or no further information on next steps or help. I called them the minute they opened at 10am, it took 28 minutes for someone to answer (very close to the 30 minute cut off again). When a gentleman answered, his name was Nathan. He reviewed my evidence whilst on the phone and told me they needed evidence on how my conditions affect me, not just the medical letters. I explained that I already filled in the online forms that requested the information on how it affects you but I was informed it wasn’t enough. I had sent 6 pages of medical information at this point. Finding the process stressful and feeling overwhelmed I asked if he could call me back in 30 minutes due to having to go through some of the 780 pages of medical notes from my GP. As soon as I went back through the photographic evidence I had already sent evidence detailing this from medical professionals. He called back 30 minutes later whilst I had time to gather more evidence. I explained to him I had already sent evidence detailing what he asked. He asked me to detail where and what it said. I then went through the laborious and embarrassing task of reading my medical notes to him. He then changed the goal post by saying, it needed to be within the last 2 years. I challenged him on this and said no where on the forms does it say this and also he had not informed me of this before. He then told me it was policy, so I asked him to send me this policy in an email detailing where it said this on the forms and also what guidance they are following. As soon as I did this he said it states ‘recent evidence’ so I challenged him and said that’s not 2 years then, is it? He then went on to read out the policy about ‘medical evidence may be considered if there the person is not in recipt of PIP’. He had stated earlier in the conversation that I needed to have PIP. I became increasingly frustrated with the embarrassing and degrading situation I was experiencing with what I can only describe as someone intentionally gate keeping access to something that should be accessible when you meet the requirements (which I did). Furthermore he continued to tell me I needed proof my conditions hadn’t improved. I asked him if he made the decisions and he said he worked with the decision makers. I informed him that all 3 diagnoses I have are lifelong and degenerative and that if someone had spent their time looking into the conditions rather that trying to gate keep and deny access then they would know that. You don’t necessarily go to your GP every 2 years for them to tell you you still have the genetic disorder you were born with and that your symptoms have suddenly disappeared! He kept telling me he wanted to help me whilst clearly trying to do anything but. As soon as I challenged him on anything he told me I was interrupting him (which I did on a couple of occasions after he tripped himself up with his own misinformation) Due to this he escalated my call to a decision maker who after having spent another 39 minutes on the phone whilst she read my medical evidence, renewed my card! The experience was absolutely horrible from start to finish. I know I am one of many with these awful experiences but hopefully if enough of us speak out it will lead to some positive changes in the future. If I can find a way to get through to them about making a formal complaint then I will be doing so.