Yep you can carry on driving until DVLA actually say that you can't. With me ages ago, I had a glitch with eyesight and Cardiff kept telling me they had contacted my local driving test centre on numerous occasions - they didn't believe me or anyone else like my optician, telling them that Yes I absolutely could read a number plate at whatever distance - that wasn't good enough, it absolutely MUST be a Driving Instructor. Eventually I took myself to the driving test centre and explained the problem. They were furious because DVLA had never sent them a single thing. One chap was about to clock off, and said he'd sort it, so go and get a cuppa from the van over the road (it's on a local industrial estate) and I'd just sat down in the front of the car with my coffee when he came out of the front door with his big measuring tape, so I joined him, he'd rung them and requested they immediately send him what they wanted which they did, as he measured the prescribed distance, which finished smack in the middle of a factory entrance and exit. I suggested we stood on the other side of there cos although it was another metre, that wouldn't affect my answers, I read the whole row of cars all parked next to the one he picked after I told him that one. He then took me back inside and up 2 floors to their Fax machine and faxed the form back to them with all the official stamps and signatures on it.
So I was driving round for months while that was(n't) going on and I received my renewed licence in the post shortly after- with absolutely no comment from them about the delay.
Just don't worry unless you either need to hire a car or drive abroad any time soon.
