GP refuses to provide letter of support

My daughter applied for PIP on January 6 2020. I am her nominee. She was unsuccessful. She was again unsuccessful at mandatory reconsideration. We are now at the appeal stage. I live in cardiff, she lives in Oxford. Last November I wrote to her GP asking for a letter of support. At the same time my daughter wrote to her GP giving permission for the GP to write to me. We heard nothing. A month later my husband phoned the surgery. He had to phone three times before receiving a response via a member of admin staff and only because he had threatened to make a complaint. He was told that the GP would only write a letter of support if she was contacted by the DWP. My husband said that he didn;t believe that to be the case but that he would check. We both checked. I then printed a copy of Citizens' Advice and sent it to my daughter with a letter for her to sign, giving her GP permission to write to me. We heard nothing. My husband phoned the surgery on Friday to make an appointment for our daughter. He also asked why the letter of support had not been sent. he was told, again via the admin staff, "It is not policy to provide letters of support unless requested to do so by the DWP." I have written to the tribunal to explain the situation and ask them to contact the GP directly. Was this the correct thing to do? Is the doctor withing her rights to refuses? We don;t know whether it is her policy or the policy of the surgery. My daughter has Asperger's and OCD as well as hypoparathyroidism (only recently diagnosed) and is very stressed by interactions with her surgery. She doesn't want us to make a complaint because she feels overwhelmed.

I work for a CAB and we try and get round this problem by saying to GP surgery - would you rather have the administartion of writing a supporting letter or for client to request a full copy of their records going back several years and resultant admin overhead

Also a suspicion that GP's influenced by getting paid if requested by DWP - the quality of these responses are also questionable

Interesting line to take - makes sense. I have often posted how when requesting GP letter I always offer to pay, and do get charged. But the letters that resulted have always been both genuine and reasonably or very helpful. I discovered last time, as far as I know for the first time in 3 claims and probably because it was paper-based, DWP did write to GP. But the list of questions was such that the GP declined to answer them! Result with the paid-for letter and other evidence was Enhanced x 2 anyway, without a fight so we're very happy. Denby
Denby

My daughter requested a copy of her medical records and told her GP that this information needed to be received by the tribunal by March 3. She has not received her medical records. My husband and I would love to make an official complaint on her behalf but she would be too stressed. I have ME/CFS, depression and anxiety and I haven't been able to sleep with the stress caused by this appalling GP. When she is better we are going to help her to move to a different area so she can register with a better doctor.