NHS Pre-payment "fine" - how can this be allowed?
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Can you not sign up for a new card online now and backdate it? I'm sure it asks you when you want it to start and some backdating is allowed. Still it might have changed.
They are getting much tougher on checking though. My OH got one the other day and she does have a card on DD. Seems they messed up her details at some point and her birth date was changed! She rang them and they apologised.
Did the chemist know her and were aware she usualy had a cerfiticate? They may have checked the card seen box in this case.
And get it on DD, it costs no more and is auto renewed. Well beyond when they messed up a few years back but did send people letters telling them to just sign up online again! Also even with a renewed certificate there can be techincaly times when you are meant to pay and claim back. My first payment is after the card is sent so I technically should pay and claim back within that period. Why they don;t move the date I don't know. I just ignore it though. If they want a fight on the fact I am saving them pointless admin then so be it. The OH does not have this issues as she pays the first payment before the card is valid (The card is technically nopt valid until the first payment has been taken).0 -
Shouldn't have said anything, just bought a new card. The chances of those prescription(s) being randomly checked and you being found out was miniscule. But I'm afraid now you've owned up there's more than an even chance they'll go down the fine route.
Makes no difference if you do have exemption card. I know some who has a 5 year exemption as epileptic. Had a year to run and they got a letter saying they where going to be fined. it got sorted. But the person was very distressed due to have acquired brain injury.
Its a joke they don't check properly.
Just scrap the whole thing and make everyone pay a £1 per item.
Yours
Calley xHope for everything and expect nothing!!!
Good enough is almost always good enough -Prof Barry Schwartz
If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try -Seth Godin0 -
Well last figures I saw in England alone more than a billion prescriptions are written per year (c90% were 'free') and only something like 900k penalty notices were issued. So what's that 0.01%?
But that doesn't tell you how many of the billion free prescriptions were claimed with valid certificates and how many were claimed without a valid certificate.
The 900k may have been 100% of these claimed without a valid certificate.0 -
But that doesn't tell you how many of the billion free prescriptions were claimed with valid certificates and how many were claimed without a valid certificate.
The 900k may have been 100% of these claimed without a valid certificate.
You don't really believe that do you. According to this BBC report.An estimated 30m prescription items totalling around £237m are incorrectly claimed each year.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30622544
That obviously covers the OP's circumstances plus fraud relating to the various exemptions0 -
I don't understand why this is in any way unfair. You get a discount for buying a pre paid card and it lasts a year. Why is it someone else's responsibility to keep track of when it expires? In this day and age setting an electronic reminder is easy. If you don't use such things then writing it in the paper diary is equally easy.
Given that significant numbers try to avoid payment (not suggesting OP is one of them) having some sort of scheme to deter this seems very reasonable. You can, of course, have free prescriptions for all but if you do this money for the NHS will need to be found elsewhere.0 -
Wow, there are a lot of replies here in a short space of time. Thank you everyone for posting, I'll try and address the relevant points:
We didn't know about the DD option, will certainly look into that now!
Unfortunately you can't backdate a card, it only applies from the day it's purchased.
You can pay for a previous prescription, but ONLY if it's still at the chemist. Once it's sent back to the HQ, you can't.
I realise that fraud is a problem and many, many people swing the lead and hope for the best, this is why I believe this case is different.
1. We realised we'd made a mistake.
2. We tried to correct that mistake and pay.
3. They won't let us.
4. They may fine anyway
5. They will then also charge for the prescription as well as the fine.
They say they have no way of taking a payment from me - so may fine me.
This is why I have posted in consumer rights, rather than any benefit/health related forum.
How can any organisation refuse to take a payment I AM ACTIVELY TRYING TO PAY*and then fine me for not paying when I should have done?
Again - I'm trying to pay this. They won't let me.
*I know caps, I'm not shouting, I'm trying to make the point clear.0 -
How do you get that from those figures? You’ve not put anything in to say how frequently people got it wrong.Well last figures I saw in England alone more than a billion prescriptions are written per year (c90% were 'free') and only something like 900k penalty notices were issued. So what's that 0.01%?0 -
BlueSkiesandClouds wrote: »How can any organisation refuse to take a payment I AM ACTIVELY TRYING TO PAY*and then fine me for not paying when I should have done?
Again - I'm trying to pay this. They won't let me.
Its pretty simple; you were supposed to pay when you got the prescription but you didn't. It makes no difference that you are trying to pay now because you have already broken the rules.
There has to be a cut off at some point and that cut off is when the prescription leaves the pharmacy.
If your partner has a condition that makes her prone to mental lapses then why arn't you helping to ensure her card stays in date, I bet the card has a date on it so it's not difficult to check also like other said you could have easily set a reminder. So it's not as if the expirary date was a surprise.
But I'm willing to bet you won't make the same mistake again.0 -
What on earth has happened to this forum.
Maybe it's just this sub-forum, but I remember MSE being a friendly, helpful place.
This thread has immediately derailed into debates over numbers of fines and a stunning lack of compassion for the situation - takman, in particular, thanks for those presumptions. Perhaps it didn't occur to you that maybe things aren't all that rosy for me either.
However - all that is irrelevant to this discussion, I have tried to keep it depersonalised aside from relevant information.
The question is - from a consumer rights perspective:
If no offence has been recorded, or acted upon, and the customer tries to fix the mistake before it could escalate (or nothing comes of it), should the customer still be hit with the full force of the consequences?
Or put it another way...
If you are buying your weekly food shop, go home, check your receipt and find that you weren't charged for an item. If you go back to pay for it should you be instantly detained and charged with shoplifting?
For a mistake you didn't realise, and tried to rectify?
Maybe there isn't any consumer rights to discuss in that situation, but I hope there is.0
This discussion has been closed.
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