Learn what will happen at a disability living allowance medical, including what questions are likely to be asked. Plus, download a copy of the actual report form the doctor will complete. Improve the chances of accurate information being written by the doctor and know how to challenge it if it's wrong.

Will I have to have a medical?
There’s no way of knowing when you make a claim for disability living allowance whether you will be asked to have to have a medical or not. If you are asked and refuse, however, your claim for disability living allowance will automatically be turned down.

Atos Healthcare doctors are paid a fee of over £100 for each disability living allowance medical they carry out. Yet many people report that the doctor seemed in a rush, stayed only a very short time and wasn’t interested in what they had to say. Some found the doctor positively rude.

Others say that although the doctor seemed sympathetic and encouraging, they later discovered that the disability living allowance medical report was very dismissive of their needs.

Only Benefits and Work provides members with:

• Details of how to ensure you get proper notice of a medical visit, rather than a phone call the night before;
• A copy of the medical report the doctor will complete;
• A list of the questions the doctor is likely to ask you;
• A highly effective Medical Visit Record Sheet for you and your accompanying person to complete and use as evidence at a tribunal if necessary;
• Details of the ‘oral warning’ the doctor may issue you with if you take notes;
• Information about some doctors habit of ‘searching’ your home.

Challenging a medical report
If the doctor does write an inaccurate and unhelpful disability living allowance medical report which leads to you not getting the correct award, or any award at all, we can help with that too.

Our guide to the Best Possible Ways to Challenge a DLA or AA medical report is a unique tool, with detailed sections on challenging every stage of the medical report process. It is written for claimants, but contains a great deal that will save time and provide fresh ideas for even experienced welfare rights workers involved with appeals. The guide quotes from texts such as the Facilitators Notes from training attended by all Atos Healthcare doctors when the new medical report forms were introduced in 2006. The guide also draws on training materials used by examining doctors learning the 'Art of Disability Analysis'.

An Atos Healthcare doctor's report can be extremely damaging to your claim. But become a Benefits and Work member you will be well prepared both for the visit and for an appeal if that is necessary.

Existing members can download all our disability living allowance medical resources

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