Your practitioner is hesitant about the T2201. This is common, and workable.
This is one of the most frequent places a Disability Tax Credit application stops, and it is rarely personal. The form asks your practitioner to do something quite specific, and the request usually arrives with no preparation at all.
Why practitioners hesitate
There are usually three reasons, and none of them is about you.
- Time. Completing it properly is not a two-minute job, and it typically lands in an appointment booked for something else.
- Unfamiliarity. Many practitioners see this form rarely. The criteria are not intuitive, and the language the CRA uses is not the language of a clinical note.
- Uncertainty about attesting. They are being asked to certify how an impairment affects your daily function over time. If they have treated your condition for years but never recorded how long it takes you to get dressed, they may not feel able to sign something that says so.
That third one is the real obstacle, and it is the one you can do something about. Your practitioner is not withholding a favour. They are being asked a question they may not have the information to answer.
Who is allowed to certify, and for what
This is narrower than most people assume. Only a medical doctor or nurse practitioner can certify all impairments. Everyone else is limited to their own area.
| Practitioner | Impairments they may certify |
|---|---|
| Medical doctor | All impairments |
| Nurse practitioner | All impairments |
| Optometrist | Vision |
| Audiologist | Hearing |
| Occupational therapist | Walking, feeding, dressing |
| Physiotherapist | Walking |
| Psychologist | Mental functions |
| Speech-language pathologist | Speaking |
The practical consequence. If your family doctor will not complete the form and your restriction is walking, a physiotherapist or an occupational therapist may be able to certify it. If it is mental functions, a psychologist may. If it is vision, an optometrist may.
But if your situation spans several categories, or rests on the cumulative effect of more than one, only a medical doctor or nurse practitioner can cover all of it. In that case a different profession is not a way around the problem, and it is better to know that before spending weeks on it.
Part B is theirs alone, and this is not negotiable. The CRA states that Part B must only be completed by a medical practitioner, that applicants cannot complete it themselves, and that if an applicant does so it will not be processed. That is also the clearest statement of where any preparation service stops, including ours.
The digital route is often a lighter ask
Many people still arrive with a printed package. The CRA runs a digital application, and for a busy practitioner it is frequently the smaller imposition.
You complete Part A yourself, online or by phone. You receive a reference number. You give that number to your practitioner, who uses it to complete Part B, and the form is then submitted automatically.
One trap worth knowing. The CRA states that Part A and Part B must be submitted using the same method, and that it cannot process an application where the entire thing is not in the same format. Do not start digitally and finish on paper. Pick one and stay with it.
What actually helps
Asking again rarely works. Changing what you are asking for usually does. What a practitioner needs is the functional detail that is not in their notes, written down, so their job becomes reviewing a description rather than reconstructing your daily life in a ten-minute appointment.
- Bring it in writing, in advance. Not at the end of an appointment booked for something else.
- Describe effect, not diagnosis. How long things take, how often, what help you need, what a bad day looks like. They already know the diagnosis.
- Be concrete. "Forty minutes to dress on Tuesday, and my partner did the buttons" is something a practitioner can assess. "Dressing is hard" is not.
- Describe yourself as you actually are, on your usual medication, therapy and devices, because that is how the CRA assesses it.
- Leave the judgment to them. You are supplying information, not a conclusion. A practitioner who feels steered is more likely to decline, not less.
Their fee, and what to do about it
A practitioner may charge for completing the application or for providing information. That is their entitlement, and it is separate from any preparation service.
The CRA indicates that fee may be claimable as a medical expense on line 33099 or 33199. Keep the receipt.
If the fee itself is the barrier, note that Access DTC in British Columbia runs a fund that helps cover exactly this, at no cost. Details and the other free routes.
If they still say no
- Ask what would change their mind. Sometimes the answer is a specific piece of information, a specialist's report, or simply more time. That is a solvable problem.
- Consider a different qualified practitioner for the impairment in question, using the table above. Check the scope covers your actual restriction before booking anything.
- Consider whether they are right. Worth saying plainly. A practitioner who knows you well and does not believe the criteria are met may simply be giving you accurate information. That is not an obstacle to route around, and we would not help you route around it.
- If you have no practitioner at all, that is the first problem to solve, before anything else. Without one there is no application, and no preparation service changes that.
Where to start
The self-check produces the written, functional description this entire page is about. It is free, it runs in your browser, it sends us nothing unless you choose to, and you can print the result and take it to your appointment without ever dealing with us.
If you would rather we prepared the full briefing document, it is a flat CAD299 and this is what it includes. Free help is listed here. We do not determine eligibility, provide medical opinion, or guarantee approval, and nothing on this page is legal, medical, or tax advice.