DLA Renewal Form - Medical Evidence - £89.00

Good evening to you all,

My wife recently received the form to renew her DLA as her current award expired shortly.

Her condition has not changed so we filled the form in and made an appointment to see her GP to get supporting evidence as we did last time.

The Dr was very understanding and helpful as always and organised a letter on his dictaphone there and then.

But we were rather shocked when we asked would it be posted soon and he replied it will not be posted until we have paid the invoice of £89.00.

We explained to him that we have never paid for a letter before and how is someone on Income Support supposed to find that kind of money.

He just said thats what it costs as it a private service.

Has anybody else found this has happened to them of late.

I think this is an exstortionate amount for a few lines on a letter.

That does sound very steep! my GP charged me £15 Regards Tracie

alfwithhair wrote:

Good evening to you all,

My wife recently received the form to renew her DLA as her current award expired shortly.

Her condition has not changed so we filled the form in and made an appointment to see her GP to get supporting evidence as we did last time.

The Dr was very understanding and helpful as always and organised a letter on his dictaphone there and then.

But we were rather shocked when we asked would it be posted soon and he replied it will not be posted until we have paid the invoice of £89.00.

We explained to him that we have never paid for a letter before and how is someone on Income Support supposed to find that kind of money.

He just said thats what it costs as it a private service.

Has anybody else found this has happened to them of late.

I think this is an exstortionate amount for a few lines on a letter.

Hi,

Although completing questionaires and forms for the DWP is part of a GP's NHS contract, completing letters of support etc for claiment is not. Thus it is classed as a private service and GP's can charge for them.

Although I must say £89 is more than most GP's seem to charge. It is often around the £20 to £40 area.

Instead of a letter you can obtain copies of your medical notes under the Data Protection Act which is much cheaper.

Perhaps it could be worth speaking with the practice manager to see if a letter could be done cheaper if you are struggling money wise. The Practice Manager should also be able to help out with Data Protection requests.

Pete

Thanks for the info.

I did the SAR for the records when we went to her tribunal, nothing has changed much so don't think there will be anything new in them, but might be worth a shot if they won't budge on the fee.

I would also like to know if it takes the DPW past her award date end, do they back date it to that date or to the date they receive the form back?

The BMA Guidelines for that sort of letter is £41 plus VAT

I've never had to pay for any reports from any GP, and I always offered to pay.

A lovely consultant I saw for yrs actually wrote me a 2 page report for me to send with my appeal to have my Ill-Health retirement pension refusal overturned (hope that makes sense!). He arranged an appointment for me to see him in his office where I spent 45 mins with him asking questions in order for him to write my report. This report got me my IHR pension, and I also used it to send with my DLA renewal which was also successful in getting me HRM and HRC indefinitely.

I offered to pay for it, but he refused and said there was no need!