NHS Pre Payment Prescription Fine

jcarver007

Not sure if this is in the correct forum but looking for some advice on the following:
I paid for PPC same day as collecting the prescription and have proof of this. I then used the PPC to collect some medications and thought nothing of it. However I was then chased by NHS for penalty charge plus surcharge etc claiming that I did not have a prepayment certificate. The penalty charge and surcharge are £150 which seems outrageous.

The problem I have is that the wrong date appears on the PPC. It should have been 9/4 but instead is 9/5. I am not sure whether I entered the wrong details in a rush or whether its a glitch.

Do I have any grounds to challenge this penalty? The charge seems very excessive for something that was likely a genuine mistake.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

MyRealNameToo

jcarver007 said:

Not sure if this is in the correct forum but looking for some advice on the following:
I paid for PPC same day as collecting the prescription and have proof of this. I then used the PPC to collect some medications and thought nothing of it. However I was then chased by NHS for penalty charge plus surcharge etc claiming that I did not have a prepayment certificate. The penalty charge and surcharge are £150 which seems outrageous.

The problem I have is that the wrong date appears on the PPC. It should have been 9/4 but instead is 9/5. I am not sure whether I entered the wrong details in a rush or whether its a glitch.

Do I have any grounds to challenge this penalty? The charge seems very excessive for something that was likely a genuine mistake.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

The former is the more likely issue, you asked for 9th May start date and then tried to use it in April and hence correctly have been called up on it. 

I personally think the whole system doesnt work well given if someone picks a prescription up for me and makes a wrong declaration I am liable for it. Similarly I have a medical exception for what is in effect a birth defect but I have to reapply for a certificate every 5 years and was fined on one occasion because the certificate had lapsed and I hadn't spotted. As they pointed out, technically it's the certificate that grants the right not to pay not the medical condition that gets me the certificate.

Your problem is that the person who does intentionally future date the cert and then knowingly uses before its valid is going to say the same thing. We had a poster here recently also fined but they intentionally cluster their prescriptions so to buy two quarterly exemptions rather than annual ones. 

For me they did agree to waive the penalty aspect if I could get a new one issued confirming I haven't fixed my birth defect but would still have to pay the prescription charges. I doubt they will be as compassionate for a pre-paid certificate though.