Free prescriptions: Britons could wait longer for medication after state pension change | Personal Finance | Finance

This certificate saves people money if they need more than three items in 3 months, or 11 items in 12 months.

As it stands, a NHS prescription Prepayment Certificate would cost an individual £30.25 for 3 months or £108.10 for 12 months.

She added: “If someone in this age group decides their best option is to buy a Pre Payment Certificate every year it would cost them more than £600 in their run up to retirement, so from that point of view this really is a stealth tax on older people.

“However, it’s also clear that some could end up paying a lot more than that, because awareness of these Certificates is quite low, and that others could buy one and then find they would have been better off without it. This seems really unfair.