IIDB silly question.

Hi folks - silly season again I’m afraid.

I have a client who is looking to claim IIDB.

I informed him that he had to be diagnosed with a condition, and the condition must be linked to his former occupation.

He has told me that his doctor refuses to look into it further and offer a diagnosis as he says that “The DWP now do IIDB medicals”

Is this right?? Is the GP getting confused with ESA/DLA medicals or is he talking complete tosh (as i suspect)

I cant really get any further until a diagnosis is made and his GP refuses to get involved.

Any ideas?

The DWP do IIDB medicals, two of my clients have had them recently.

Thanks for that. I will now advise.

I did an appeal for IIDB a few weeks back (first one for years!) and I had forgotten that the Doctor on the panel can, if they need to, carry out a medical examination of the appellant.

According to p.213, Disability Rights Handbook:

If a claim is made, relating to an industrial accident case, the claimant will be examined by one (or possibly two) DWP healthcare professionals to give the DM with an opinion on whether the claimant has a loss of faculty as a result of the accident, and if so the extent of disablement and how long it is likely to last. 

The DM then decides the claim based on this report and any other available evidence, which can include a letter from the GP.  There is nothing therefore to prevent the GP providing a report if they so wish, though the DM may, in practice, go with the DWP healthcare professional’s stance.

If it’s an industrial accident try not to worry too much about G.P. diagnosis.  Stay focused on the loss of faculty and resulting disablement.  Watch out for the curse of disablement assessments, the pre-existing cause. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen 14% plus disablement only to have an offset for pre-existing arthritis.

Other than that, what the others have said.