One of my jobs when I worked at Social Services was the Blue Badge admin, I issued the Orange Badges first (remember those?) before the EU version. It was quite simple then (16 years ago), if you received DLA you automatically got one, otherwise you said what was wrong with you, how far you could walk and we got a GP report.
OK there were many people who got one who shouldn't have, but I now have one myself, what a palava, like GM says the questions. In the old days when you came up for renewal you just stated that you hadn't improved and still suffered from the same disability and you got your badge, now you have to start from scratch, and in my day if you lost your badge you just sent in £2 and got a replacement.
You have my sympathy GM, I do hope you manage to find your badge among the paperwork, I am just the same so much stuff piles up.