NHS unpaid dental fine

cc91

Hello, firstly apologies if this topic is in the wrong section.

I've received a letter in the post today telling me I wasn't entitled to free treatment for my dental procedure on the 30th June, asking me to pay for the treatment cost and a £100 penalty fine totaling £151, threatening court and more fees if the fine is not paid before the 24th August.

I will take full responsible for this as looking back now I believe I was in the wrong, but I didn't genuinely defraud the NHS, it was just a big mistake from myself. I was on employment and support allowance for a long time, my ESA was stopped on the 18th June (give or take a few days), I inquired about lodging an appeal about the ESA and was told to send off a mandatory reconsideration.

The problem is that I sent the mandatory reconsideration a couple of days after my dental treatment assuming it would be backdated, but it obviously wasn't as I've been hit by this fine so as I said it was a mistake from me and I take responsibility for it. (If anyone is wondering, when you appeal ESA you are still in benefit during your appeal up until a tribunal makes a decision).

Now on to the main topic, I'm unsure of what to do next. I definitely cannot afford the £151, I've been doing some research and it seems I could possibly apply for a backdated HC1 low-income form and send it as an appeal for the NHS unpaid charges, but I don't know if they would accept that as an appeal and if I'm even able to get a HC1 (it said if you're on income benefit, then you don't need one, I went on JSA on the 3rd July, but it would be for backdating purposes only)

Or the last option of completely ignoring the letters and seeing what happens, but it says they can take you to court and fine you up to a maximum of £2000 if that happens, I'm not sure how often they would actually pursue that measure but I'm not sure if it's a risk worth taking.

I did find this post, but it's dated 2 years ago so may not be accurate anymore:

Capita who run the debt recovery process for the nhsbsa finally realised that issuing county court claims and applying for CCJS was time consuming and not cost effective. So currently they only go after easy targets and conscientious patients who respond to their letters. The ultimate irony being that if you simply ignore all their letters the debt is written off. The threat of issuing a court claim is now just bluff..

Apologies if this post is a bit all over the place I'm very anxious and just trying to explain the situation in depth, TIA for any advice.

KxMx

Okay so what happened as a result of the mandatory reconsideration?

I think this needs to be picked apart a little more to determine your situation on the day of treatment.

It may be that wires got crossed and you were entitled depending on what happened after MR but that it didn't register on their checking system.

cc91

KxMx wrote: »

Okay so what happened as a result of the mandatory reconsideration?

I think this needs to be picked apart a little more to determine your situation on the day of treatment.

It may be that wires got crossed and you were entitled depending on what happened after MR but that it didn't register on their checking system.

The mandatory reconsideration was unsuccessful, I believe I wasn't entitled to free treatment from ESA on the day of my treatment (due to the fact the mandatory reconsideration wasn't back dated, which I thought it would be which was my mistake that I take responsibility for). That's why I'm asking if it's possible to apply for a HC1 I think it is, backdated as I believe that would have covered me in the case of no benefits, but then again I ticked the box saying I was receiving benefits (because I thought the mandatory reconsideration would cover it but it didn't) so I'm not sure how that would hold up as an appeal if I did get a backdated HC1 certificate.

Sorry if that makes no sense, almost confusing myself here!

KxMx

No I follow you

So the MR was unsuccessful and your case was not sent to the tribunal/moved to a formal appeal and you have instead signed on for JSA?

You could contact the NHS BSA who run the HC1 scheme with your questions they have a Facebook page and are good at replying to messages.

It may be possible to get an HC1 award on the basis of zero income from when your ESA was stopped to when you signed onto JSA just for that period- which you could use in appeal against the fine- but this is outside my knowledge.

cc91

KxMx wrote: »

No I follow you

So the MR was unsuccessful and your case was not sent to the tribunal/moved to a formal appeal and you have instead signed on for JSA?

You could contact the NHS BSA who run the HC1 scheme with your questions they have a Facebook Page and are good at replying to messages.

It may be possible to get an HC1 award on the basis of zero income from when your ESA was stopped to when you signed onto JSA just for that period- which you could use in appeal against the fine- but this is outside my knowledge.

That's correct, I shall give that a go and see what happens, thanks for your help Kx.

cc91

cc91 wrote: »

That's correct, I shall give that a go and see what happens, thanks for your help Kx.

They already got back to me with this:

A HC1 form is an assessment of your circumstances at the time you apply. Any certificate cannot be backdated to cover a previous course of treatment. Thanks, Ben.

So it appears I'm out of luck and have one very costly mistake that I can't even afford on my hands, unsure of where to go from here.. will go to the CAB tomorrow but I don't know what they can do for me.

Wouldn't even mind paying for the treatment, but a £100 charge for a genuine mistake seems a bit over the top.

NYM

Is the £100 penalty still applicable if you were to settle the treatment cost (£51) by the 24th August?

cc91

NYM wrote: »

Is the £100 penalty still applicable if you were to settle the treatment cost (£51) by the 24th August?

In accordance with the National Health Service (Penalty Charge) Regulations 1999, you are required to pay a penalty charge in addition to your unpaid NHS dental treatment charge...

So yes, I'm 99% sure. I'll try to get some help from the CAB tomorrow, I'll also write to the NHS charge people trying to get the penalty charge waived with the reasoning that I would be entitled to free treatment due to low-income anyway on the treatment date. Not sure how successful it'll be, but I can only try.

NYM

cc91 wrote: »

So yes, I'm 99% sure. I'll try to get some help from the CAB tomorrow, I'll also write to the NHS charge people trying to get the penalty charge waived with the reasoning that I would be entitled to free treatment due to low-income anyway on the treatment date. Not sure how successful it'll be, but I can only try.

You'll never know unless you try. Good luck.

Laurensalive

Just a question. When did you get the letter from the DWP telling you that ESA had been stopped, Before or after the dental treatment?

cc91

Laurensalive wrote: »

Just a question. When did you get the letter from the DWP telling you that ESA had been stopped, Before or after the dental treatment?

It was before, around the 18th give or take a day. I thought the mandatory reconsideration that I sent (you had 14 days from the date of the letter to send it off) would be backdated to the day that the ESA stopped and that it would cover my treatment still (when you appeal ESA you still get the benefit up until decision time)