Hi, I'm Trish1966! Can my GP charge £20 for a blue badge support letter?

Trish1966

Hi all 
I'm struggling with fibromyalgia, arthritis and dodgy mental health issues. I am alone only 1 real friend who is ace. I was going to aqua aerobics 3-4 times a week but now I have a fungal infection in all my fingernails so have been advised by GP not to get hands wet for a length of time while they sort out how to treat it. I do still go as there are many other activities I can do but get extremely anxious if I go alone and basically chicken out. I am waiting for my PIP renewal and because of that have emailed the GP to do me a supporting letter to send. They want to charge me £20 for a letter of a couple of lines. Can they do this? I have waffled on. I live in Stoke-on-Trent hope to chat soon 

bg844

Yes they can charge. A GP letter has no bearing on a PIP award as they don’t know your full struggles with Daily Living and Mobility, you can request a full copy of your medical records for free but a letter will cost.

Trish1966

Sorry I missed some out. I wanted a GP letter for a blue badge application 

poppy123456

Even for a BB application they can still charge and they wouldn't really be able to give enough of information because they don't spend any time with you to know how your conditions affect you.

If you have other medical evidence for a BB application then you should send that instead.

Cher_Alumni

Hi @Trish1966 and a warm welcome to our community, I'm sorry to hear you've got a fungal infection but glad to hear it hasn't deterred you from doing other activities  Do you receive support with your anxiety?

As others have commented, please don't feel that you have to pay for medical evidence to support your application. Often free advice, sought either here or via Advice Local can suffice in understanding how to fill in forms effectively. Do you have any clinical letters from hospital appointments that you could potentially include?

Also, just to let you know, I've moved your thread to our Travel and transport category and tweaked the title to show your question. 

Wishing you all the best, take care.

cornishmummy

£36 I was charged for a letter 6 weeks ago. I explained I’m single parent and entitled to free prescription was told this is different and the doctors does this in their own time .  Never would I pay again as what was said didn’t warrant the cost . 

unclebob

You don't need doctors letter for blue badge i got onw without. But they do charge for anything like this. I asked for a letter to help with pip claim told me it would be £30 so did it without.

OverlyAnxious

I needed a GP letter for something last year and they charged about £40 for it! 

The letter itself was poorly typed, presumably dictated, and the information in it was so badly incorrect that it undermined the information I'd previously given for this purpose.

As someone else said above, I'd never do it again!