Free prescription age changes could hurt those ‘just above the benefit line’ | Personal Finance | Finance

Even if they can afford it, the six year age rise will see someone who has just turned 60 spending over £600 on their medication before they can receive free prescriptions.

Caroline Abrahams, Age UK’’s charity director commented that this proposal was a “kick in the teeth” for both the elderly and the NHS who will have to deal with the consequences of people avoiding medical treatment for fear of the cost. 

Many have been angered not simply by the proposal but the fact that prescriptions in Scotland and Wales are free for everyone, a decision not reflected at all in England. 

Ms Abrahams commented: “Instead, our Government wants to do the opposite: make many more people pay for their medicines, and at an age when it’s all the more important they take them, to control conditions that if left untreated can lead to really serious medical problems, piling more pressure onto the NHS. If ever there was a self-defeating policy this is it, and we know that many medical experts agree with us.”

Age UK have been campaigning to save the free prescriptions, noting on their website that the proposal is: “A bitter pill to swallow for millions in this age group, especially if their income is modest but takes them just above the benefit line. 

“It also penalises those who need multiple medicines because they are managing several serious long term health conditions, like hypertension or heart disease.”