Universal Credit claimants urged to check free prescription entitlement | Personal Finance | Finance
Free NHS prescriptions are only available to certain groups who meet the criteria of either age, benefits or income. However, incorrectly claiming this assistance could see Britons facing fines five times the cost of their prescription.
Claiming Universal Credit automatically entitles a person to a range of financial assistance, but free prescriptions is not one of them.
Claimants must meet extra criteria if they want to claim their medication for free.
However, some claimants may not be aware of these added requirements and could find themselves facing similar fines in the future.
The main requirement for Universal Credit claimants wanting to get free prescriptions is their earnings could not have been more than £435 in their last assessment period.
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However, if they receive one of the following they can earn up to £935 in their last assessment period and still qualify:
- An element for a child
- Limited capability for work
- Limited capability for work and work-related activity.
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People who have a joint claim will need to have combined net earnings below these amounts to qualify.
For those that are entitled to free prescriptions, they will need to present a copy of their Universal Credit award when collecting their prescription in order to prove their entitlement.
If a person is not entirely sure whether they are eligible for free prescriptions they should pay for their medication and can request a refund once they are able to confirm their entitlement.
People doing this need to ask for and keep their receipt when paying for a prescription and must get a FP57 refund form.
It is vital that they ask for the FP57 when paying for their prescription as they will not be able to get it at a later time.
Mistakenly or incorrectly claiming free prescriptions can see people being fined up to five times the original amount of their prescription, up to a maximum of £100.
Although, if no payment is made within 28 days of the penalty charge notice being issued a surcharge could also be added.
Britons can use the online eligibility checker here to see if they are actually eligible for free prescriptions.
