Letter to Your GP

Description

Most GP letters don’t help. This one asks the right questions.

A letter that says you have arthritis and find daily tasks difficult tells the DWP nothing they can score. PIP is decided on what you can and cannot do, activity by activity, and whether you can do it safely, properly, repeatedly and in a reasonable time. A GP letter that speaks to those things carries real weight. One that only names your diagnosis carries almost none.

What you get

A letter from you to your GP, written for your case. It asks six questions about the activities your claim turns on, each one set against the DWP’s own descriptor wording so your doctor can answer against a standard rather than write from scratch. The questions are neutral. They ask your GP to comment from their records and their clinical knowledge of you, not to confirm what you’ve said. That matters, because a doctor will not sign advocacy, and a decision-maker gives more weight to a letter that isn’t.

It also tells your GP what you’ve told the DWP, clearly marked as information rather than something to confirm, and asks them to say which points come from your records, which from what you’ve reported, and which are their own opinion.

A reply sheet as well

Some GPs would rather not write a letter. The last page is a reply sheet with the six questions restated, space to answer each, a tick for where the answer comes from, and a signature line. Hand over both and let your doctor choose.

Practical things it covers

Your GP may charge for this, usually £20 to £50, and the letter says you understand that. If your practice won’t write letters, it tells you what to ask for instead, which is free by right and still helps. And it tells you where to send the reply when it comes.

Written from your case. This is added to your order and generated alongside it, so the questions are about your conditions, your medication and the activities in your claim. It isn’t a template.