Driven to Despair - Report on DVLA medical section

mas430:
I have a question( sorry to jump in)

If a medical is due but I choose not to have it by the due time , can I take the medical later (6 months) then have my licence updated then ?
Cheers

I did this a couple of years ago whilst I got a health problem, (which actually was not, but that’s another story), sorted and a few weeks after the date when the medical form should have been returned I received a letter telling me my HGV entitlement was now lapsed and asking me to return my licence with either a completed medical form or to choose whether to leave the entitlement there so that a medical form could be submitted in the future, or I could choose to have the entitlement removed completely, (I am not sure why you would do that but the option is there). The form is strangely worded so to make sure I also put in a letter saying I did not want to revoke / remove/ cancel my entitlement and would be submitting a medical form in the future.
My licence then came back with the HGV entitlements removed. I submitted a medical form a couple of months later and a new licence was issued, but this did take at least 3 months, fortunately I did not need the HGV entitlement at that time as driving is not my main work, for a full time driver it would have been a disaster.
I did drive a car in France during this 3 month period and explaining to a gendarme why I only had a photocopy of my licence, blown up to A4 to make it easier to read was a challenge for my limited grasp of French. I did not try to hire a car but presumably it makes that all but impossible outside the UK as well. Depriving you of your car licence whilst considering your entitlement to drive a HGV sounds like a human rights issue to me.
I would make sure you keep a scan of your existing licence with the entitlements on as I have heard stories of DVLA “losing” the record of drivers entitlements. I certainly had a friend whose licence came back when he went through this process and they took off his 7.5t entitlement, which he had by acquired / grandfather rights just like any pre 97 car driver. Presumably if you have a "new post 97 " 7.5t entitlement acquired by test, for which you need a medical, they would definitely remove it as well.