The last notes that i sent were going back to 2009 and on the occasions that they claim my fit notes had not reached them they accepted copies of them. I was very surprised about this as it does state that you must send originals only. My GP did my certificates for 6 months at a time as they knew that there was no way i would be in a position to work again. I don't know if there have been any changes since but i always got my money on time. After they claimed (DWP) that they had not received my 1st fit note i automatically photocopied them to prevent any problems, which did pay off as another certificate fell into DWP's blackhole!!! It just shows they can bend the rules when it suites them!!! DWP have also accepted a copy from a friend of mine whose fit note went missing and that was quite recently.