NHS Prepayment card fine - can I reduce it?

DennC

Hi.

This has been touched on before in one form or another, but I'd still appreciate any thoughts on my situation.

I have a pre-payment card that I renew annually, however I got my dates mixed up (I thought it expired end of January and not end of December). I actually requested a new card in January with a start date of February.

You can probably guess what's coming - I got a prescription in January (when my card wasn't valid) and have now been hit by a NHS fine.

I know I should have remembered the card expiry date (or just checked the card on a regular basis), but I didn't so I am happy to hold my hand up and admit my mistake and pay some sort of fine.

The issue I have is the size of the fine levied by the NHS Business Services Authority (who managed the cards). They want me to pay £103.20 (for context, a 12 mth prepayment card is £104).

I think this is excessive and I've told the NHS Business Services Authority this. I've offered instead to pay the prescription I got for free, and to be honest I'd be prepared to pay a bit on top as well.

I've now been referred to their complaints department and told that they'd only consider reviewing the £103 charge if I was on a reduced income (and I'm not).

So what do you think folks? Is my only option to take the £103 hit, or is there another way to reach a compromise and pay less?

Any and all thoughts appreciated!

Thanks

Den

antrobus

DennC wrote: »

...

So what do you think folks? Is my only option to take the £103 hit, or is there another way to reach a compromise and pay less?

Basically, you have to take the hit.

There are two ways to challenge a penalty charge. Either there has been a mistake or you have "an exceptional reason not to pay".
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/challenge-penalty-charge-notice

Believing that your NHS exemption certificate was still valid, but had actually expired is not an exceptional reason. The amount of the penalty is set in the The National Health Service (Penalty Charge) Regulations 1999 I believe. The NHSBSA can't 'compromise'.

And I think if you don't pay up soon they'll add on another £50.

teddysmum

I have an MRI booked for tomorrow, but until this Thursday , was convinced it was next Sunday and would not have checked, had something not come up in conversation.


Not my fault (just a memory glitch), but had I been fined for not turning up, I would expect to pay that fine, especially as wasted appointments, across the imaging department, cost the hospital over £63K last year and because of just 4.6 % of appointments.

Paparika

why is it not on direct debit, you don't have to worry about it running out then

takman

DennC wrote: »

The issue I have is the size of the fine levied by the NHS Business Services Authority (who managed the cards). They want me to pay £103.20 (for context, a 12 mth prepayment card is £104).

I think this is excessive and I've told the NHS Business Services Authority this. I've offered instead to pay the prescription I got for free, and to be honest I'd be prepared to pay a bit on top as well.

Personally i think that a £103.20 fine is fair amount, it's not a particularly large sum of money but enough to put people off trying their luck.

If it was only a little bit more than the price of a prescription then many people would decide to risk it.

Plus the fact that you didn't check your card to make sure it was valid (which only takes seconds) could be an argument the fine isn't big enough and needs to be increased to make people more vigilant.