NHS prescription fine

Yamor

andrewmp said:

Yamor said:

Legally, the NHS exemption is based on the latest current year tax credits award at the time of the treatment or taking out the prescription.
The household income on the award has to be £15,276 or lower, but taking into account the £2.5k disregard used by HMRC for tax credits purposes.
So, if your final income for last year was over £15,276, then you would need this year's to be no higher than £12,776.
Conversely, if last year's was £15,276 or lower, then this year's must only be £17,776 or lower.

The exemption certificate issued by NHSBSA to those on tax credits is not legally required. You simply need to fall within the exempt group.
This can often be relevant where you used the NHS very soon after your tax credits award was recalculated. In this situation, you should contact NHSBSA, and they will cancel the penalty.

On the other hand, the exemption certificate is beneficial in that it is sufficient even if your situation changes so that you no longer fall within the exempt group. You would then still be entitled to free prescriptions etc until the end date on the certificate.

What if you've had a pay rise and have told them that you expect to earn more than the threshold?  Will this still issue another one?

If you've informed tax credits of your increased income, and that now takes you above the threshold, then NHSBSA will not issue you with another exemption certificate.

sheramber

RAWS said:

Hi. I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right section - apologies if not. If I'm in the right place and anyone can give some advice I'd be very grateful.

Until April this year we qualified for an NHS tax credits exemption certificate but because our estimated income (self employed) went up we didn't receive a new exemption letter. We still recieve tax credits and our income fluctuates. (We adjust the estimated income accordingly- I don't know if this is relevant but thought I'd mention it anyway.)

Did you receive new award notices when you notified the change in income?

What is the income shown on your current award notice?

ader42

Have you just received this fine? If so you might want to prepare yourself for receiving one each month for a few months… 

This happened to me when I knew nothing about NHS PPC and did not notice my tax credits exemption had stopped.

Hopefully at the end of July, August and September you either had a PPC or paid for the prescriptions. 

arnoldy

The whole thing is an expensive cottage industry that would never be tolerated in the European insurance and co payment systems. Only 1 in 10 prescriptions pay, far better to charge everyone £5 or £2 or whatever and save the money spent on the standing army administering the "free" prescriptions and handing out the "speeding tickets". You do have to squint at the complexity of the UK system.