Has any other reps or Welfare Rights Advisors had the response which is below from any gp who has been reluctant to give supporting medical evidence for disability living allowance appeals ?

(As we have said previously, unless there is a significant change to the patient's condition that you think may have a bearing on their case, or you may believe that the patient has been treated unjustly, please do not undertake such reports/form filling for organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau or "Money Matters" (who seem to think the patient can sue them if they do not ask for a GP report). Welfare Rights Officers have stated that statistically an additional GP report enhances the chance of a successful claim, this may well be the case if GP'S only do such reports rarely as in the cases above. - However, The Department of Works and Pensions do not want additional reports as it just "muddies" the water. Their decisions are based on the patient self-report and reports from GPs or, if necessary, an independent medical assessment which then takes precedence over the GP report. The LMC is also considering producing a fact sheet for such groups similar to that for housing associations.)

This has come up before in Scotland. Not heard of it south of the border. And there was a previous discussion on this but not heard of any developments. Maybe Shawn or Ken could post the link to the previous discussion.

I wouldn't have a problem with that policy if GPs actually completed the DWP factual medical reports accurately, esp. Q6 (self-care/getting around etc.).

We tend to advise DLA claimants to alert their GPs about their current care and mobility problems around the time that the FMRs will hit their GP's desks in the hope that the Q6 responses might correspond with something approaching reality.

It would be interesting to know what percentage of reports the DWP refuse to pay for (on behalf of us taxpayers) because the content is so uninformative.

According to one local medical committee website:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/lmclive/qaindex/qacert2/qacert2.html#q29

FMR fees were doubled in October 2004 to £32 per report.

What especially bugs me, is the unhelpful FMR, sent in response to the DM's enquiry, accompanied in the appeal bundle by a letter from the same GP (provided weeks later to the claimant) which starkly conflicts with the original FMR, typically: "Mr X is indeed in severe pain when trying to walk".

I can understand that a GP might decide to write "not known" in response to Q6, but stating there is "no problem" when clearly there is one must surely amount to a breach of medical ethics.

hi nevip,

think this may be the previous discussion forum thread that you highlighted -

supporting medical evidence for dla appeal