2 or more prescriptions for £10.25

Will_Tingle

With prescriptions now up to 7 quid a throw, it's easy to rack up a huge bill.

Prepayment certificates are great for people with regular prescriptions, but what about one-offs?

If you're anything like me, you don't go to the docs all that often, but when you do, its usually for a couple of different things, which adds up to 14 quid or more.

Well I've found a loophole that lets you get one months unlimited prescriptions for £10.25.

When you pick up your multiple prescriptions, ask for an application for a prepayment certificate.

Pay for your prescriptions, and get the pharmacist to give you the form for reclaiming the money.

When you get home go to www.ppa.org.uk/ppc and apply for a twelve month certificate, and opt to pay by direct debit - this will be 10 monthly installments of £10.25 each.

Once your certificate arrives, go to the chemist, and reclaim the money you have paid.

You may as well keep the PPC for a month (just in case), but when it's almost one month old, cancel the DD and send the PPC back.

This is definitely allowed - the letter you get from the nhs about your DD says:

"You have the right to cancel your Direct Debit at any time, but if you do so, you must return the PPC to the address above"

Iamthesmartestmanalive

Will_Tingle wrote: »

With prescriptions now up to 7 quid a throw, it's easy to rack up a huge bill.

Prepayment certificates are great for people with regular prescriptions, but what about one-offs?

If you're anything like me, you don't go to the docs all that often, but when you do, its usually for a couple of different things, which adds up to 14 quid or more.

Well I've found a loophole that lets you get one months unlimited prescriptions for £10.25.

When you pick up your multiple prescriptions, ask for an application for a prepayment certificate.

Pay for your prescriptions, and get the pharmacist to give you the form for reclaiming the money.

When you get home go to www.ppa.org.uk/ppc and apply for a twelve month certificate, and opt to pay by direct debit - this will be 10 monthly installments of £10.25 each.

Once your certificate arrives, go to the chemist, and reclaim the money you have paid.

You may as well keep the PPC for a month (just in case), but when it's almost one month old, cancel the DD and send the PPC back.

This is definitely allowed - the letter you get from the nhs about your DD says:

"You have the right to cancel your Direct Debit at any time, but if you do so, you must return the PPC to the address above"

The website states they are not refundable unless you become eligible for free prescriptions

Allowing you to cancel the DD and certificate is 2 different things, the likiehood is if your DD is cancelled you will become liable either for the full cost immediatly or have to pay retrospectively for the prescriptions you used it on

Whether they would pursue people who cancel DD's is another thing entirely

C_Ronaldo

I wouldnt bother doing personaly, id rather pay 1 off payments than pay £10 a month when i dont even have any subscriptions

kittiej

Move to Wales - prescriptions are free here lol

Biggles

Iamthesmartestmanalive wrote: »

Whether they would pursue people who cancel DD's is another thing entirely

Yes, they would. They pursue non-payment very aggressively these days, and in addition there would be a penalty charge of five times the amount due, so it could turn out to be a very expensive month's prescriptions.

Will_Tingle

The letter says:

"You have the right to cancel your Direct Debit at any time, but if you do so, you must return the PPC to the address above. If you use the PPC after you have cancelled the Direct Debit you could be liable for a penalty charge"

I would have though that this was misleading if you were going to incur a penalty charge even if you didn't use the PPC after your cancellation.

Regards the PPC not being refundable - you won't be claiming back any money you have paid, so 'refunds' don't come into it...

Biggles

http://www.ppa.org.uk/pdfs/ppc/HC11.pdf
"You can choose to pay for a 12-month PPC by 10 monthly Direct Debit instalments. If you pay using this option you are entering into a commitment to pay all the instalments. If you use the PPC after failing to pay an instalment you may have to pay a penalty charge.

The PPC cannot be issued until the first Direct Debit instalment is paid."

So I actually think you could be right.

But it would depend a lot on timing. After you got your prescriptions, you need to complete the application, wait for the first DD to get through the system (all the way from being set up to being received and processed at the PPA), then wait for the PPC to be sent out, all before the second DD goes through (and you may need to stop it a week or so before the due date or it may go through anyway).

Could be a close call, then it's £20.50!