Discussion ensued.

       I sort of suspect that you must actually need, or think you need your Blue Badge before you actually apply for it?  Which, I'd have thought, kinda negates the concept of a start date later than "now"; i.e. the date you apply.
        Weirdly though; my current one ends on the 15th Jul - BUT -  its replacement doesn't start on, as you might guess, 14th or 15th Jul - BUT - about a Week earlier on the 8th Jul.
        Anybody out there "in the trade" to explain discrepancy?  
Or even dat crepancy?
AND will I be "done" for employing the new one before the old one expires