ESA and medical cert exemption

Hello all,

I have a client who will not provide ESA with medical certificates because she is unable to leave her house to collect from the doctor due to menatl health issues. She has no one else to rely on to get this for her. She is also incapable of calling the doctor and asking him to send them.

I seem to remember somewhere that claiments can be exempt from having to provide med certs (or whatever the new name for certs is), in such circumstances. Can anyone point me in the right direction please.

she must have someone doing her messages/buying her food and drink/etc in which case why can that person not go collect?  or post a letter to GP for her?

There is a neighbour who tries to help, but she has her own health problems, so cannot always help as she would like. Anyway I do not think that people shoudl have to rely on freinds and neighbours in such circumstances where their benefits will be stopped, which is why I am hopping that there is some provision in benefits legislation in such cases.

S.I. 2010 No. 137 is useful: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/137/pdfs/uksi_20100137_en.pdf

Extract: “assessment” means either a consultation between a patient and a doctor which takes
place in person or by telephone or a consideration by a doctor of a written report by
another doctor or other health care professional (need to read all sections!).

Does client not have a CPN on her case or other MH professional? For someone with extreme agoraphobia I would normally expect that.