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GP refuses medical certificate
I have two similar enquiries.
1. In the 13 week assessment phase if a GP refuses to sign the client off but the client says they are too ill to work what is the process with ESA?
2. During the long appeal process if a GP will not supply any more medical certificates is there anyway to continue getting ESA at the assessment rate pending the outcome of the appeal?
Thank you
Difficult one and a situation we’ve encountered a few times. In practise, DWP won’t speed up the WCA assessment and until your client has attended and passed it, nothing is going to be paid. If GP really isn’t prepared to issue med certs (on basis GP doesn’t consider your client is incapable of/has limited capacity to work) and there is no other source of convincing evidence that client can produce instead(consultant, etc) the options are pretty minimal- ie: try to find alternative GP or claim JSA (client can always reasonably limit their availability around any ongoing illness or disabilities).