Thanks everyone I will suggest she contacts age uk

No he has full blown dementia can only say two words and doesn't even recognise her half the time its just like elderly dementia he has no mental capacity what so ever - its very sad

Hi My friend is a carer for her husband who has early onset dementia they are both 62 he is on income based ESA and she also has health problems including several strokes, angina attacks and has difficulty getting out as she has fainting fits. Last week she had to attend a compliance meeting, it seems that her husband has a works pension and a building society account which she was not aware of ( he left her for another woman and only came back to her when he started becoming ill so there are parts of his life she didn't share), she has had no letters addressed to him from either the BS or the pension company and obviously she cant ask him about it, the DWP asked her about the date the pension started amounts etc, accused her of withholding evidence and have given her 3 weeks to get that evidence She contacted both the BS the DWP say the account is held and her husbands old company, the BS refused to give her any details about the account but are writing to her husband and her husbands old employer have refused point blank to even discuss it with her, both are citing the data protection act as she does not have power of attorney she can apply to the courts to get access she said protection order but I am not sure what that means but in any case it would take longer than the 3 weeks the DWP has set. I have advised her that if her husbands old employer wont write to her that she writes to them confirming the telephone call and confirming they have refused to release the details to her due to the DPA, send it signed for a get proof of signature then at least she can prove to the DWP that she cant get the information they require. What I don't her to be is 'piggy in the middle' where the DWP say get information and BS and husbands company say 'you cant have it' and she is left floundering surely the DWP themselves can get this information anyway without the DPA so the only evidence she needs to supply is that she didn't know about the pension which could be tricky as they don't have to believe her and that she has derived no income from the pension which would be clear once BS statements are provided and there has been no movement of funds, obviously there would still be the question about capital which may have resulted in an overpayment, she is going to CAB but any help would be greatly appreciated Thank you

I would suggest you ring 0300 330 1343 and try and speak to the nice Geordie lady that I have just spoken to I rang them to check (so I could apologise to you if I was wrong ) guess what she confirmed that you do indeed get a credit card size certificate she described it to me and confirmed its the certificate that you show the pharmacist its the same as the one on the link I supplied, so where is yours and is it in date? And its not sanctimonious or nonsense to say that's it is your responsibility to check that you have proper entitlement you signed a declaration to say that that you confirm that the information is correct and complete and that you confirm proper entitlement and it is your responsibility to ensure you have the correct documentation before signing even if you don't have it with you at the time.

I hadn't thought of that of course if her certificate was in date the OP would have every expectation that it was still valid and would have every right to expect to be able to use it as she didn't know it hadn't been paid for, I am wondering why they stopped the DD, it may that she is coming up to 60 and therefore would have paying for something she had no reason to use for the normal duration of the certificate , I have heard of this happening which leaves people in limbo, hope the OP comes back and lets us know

what did you think when you didn't get the letter saying your card had been renewed with a new card showing the new start and finish date which you would have received as you are supposed to show it when you collect your prescription like this one http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-a-nhs-prescription-prepayment-certificate-card-on-a-white-background-60918443.html They may have been the ones to cancel but you are the one who should have realised when you didn't get your new certificate and the onus is on you to make sure you have the correct exemption, Pharmacists are supposed to make you aware that unless you show your proper exemption then they will mark the prescription as evidence not seen, because you sign a declaration to say you have proper exemption and that if you don't (on the day you are asked to pay) you may get a fine, if anything your Pharmacist is in the wrong because they haven't done their job in making you aware of the consequences of signing the aforementioned declaration You say you have legislation on your side that's not the case the legislation is on the side of the NHSBSA which is The National Health Service (Penalty Charge) Regulations 1999, you can try the 'can show that you did not act wrongfully, with any lack of care ' route but I would suspect they would answer that not realising your certificate had expired would show 'lack of care'

When you claim exemption for dental costs you are stating you are exempt on the first day of treatment , if you were not exempt on the day you actually went and not exempt on the day they said you went then you don't have a leg to stand on. Prescriptions are slightly different as any exemptions must cover the date you had it filled and not the date it was issued by your GP, for instance if you have an exemption that finished on the 12th and you had it filled on the 13th you are not exempt even if the prescription was issued to you on the 11th, but if you have a prescription issued the day before your 60th Birthday and you had it filled on your 60th birthday (which happened to me) then you would be exempt due to age. Therefore any incorrect date on the NHSBSA correspondence would have a bearing and maybe the basis for a complaint As for not realising there were two types of JSA cont (no automatic exemption ) income based (full exemption) some people do have difficulty knowing which one they are on however look at the back of the form you would have signed https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2017-04/20160209_PR_Proof_SAMPLE.pdf It clearly states that there are two types of JSA income based which is covered and cont based JSA which is not covered, that's the time they would have expected you to think oh there are two types not sure which one I am on, then it would be up to you to either pay the cost and claim a refund if you find out you are exempt, or take a chance tick the wrong box and get fined

They would have sent you a template letter because that's their procedure not because no-one had any idea or intention to reply, they deal with 1000s of cases every day and I doubt they have the time and manpower to write a personal letter, also all correspondence would have to be written in a certain way for legal means, you didn't want the standard reply so they escalated to a decision maker who upheld the decision, they did their job, you then made an assumption that because they didn't reply within the 10 days stated that the matter was closed, but that's all it was an assumption on your part, unless their correspondence actually stated that if you didn't hear from them within that time your complaint has been upheld, you don't have any recourse, of course you can complain that they didn't respond to you within the 10 days but I suspect the answer would be an apology for the delay, as you rightly say there was a BH within the time frame, that could possibly mean that they were running a day late which is not ideal but not grounds for them to agree to waive the fine.

Not sure why you are saying they are 'claiming' you claimed exemption under a HC2 certificate, because its a simple process to check whether or not you did, all you have to do is ask them for a copy of the form you ticked and signed, also in terms of the fine it would not matter if you were exempt because of UC they issue fines based on what you claim exemption for at the time of treatment, they don't investigate to see if you are exempt for any other reason, its not their job to do that. Looking at this link http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcosts/Pages/universal-credit.aspx#entitlement you should have shown a copy of your award letter at the time of treatment to claim under UC if you didn't have an award letter covering the time you had treatment then you would not be exempt under UC, so as it stands the fine is valid. I am not sure if the NHSBSA can trace you at your new address if that's what's worrying you I suspect its would be a case of the fine lying dormant until you need to claim again but by then it could have gone up so it may be in your best interest to contact them to sort it out

They won't do that on an individual basis there was to be a valid reason for exemption that everyone has to follow, if the household income is £1000 per month then your brother and his wife may get free prescriptions under the low income scheme http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcosts/Pages/nhs-low-income-scheme.aspx but that's a means tested scheme based on household income it has to be applied for and all income savings etc have to be taken into account failing that there are other ways of getting costs down like a prepayment certificate this link shows all the ways a person can claim exemption https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-help-health-costs

Hi This link may help its the information that's given to pharmacies http://psnc.org.uk/our-news/universal-credit-update/ looking at it it seems they are saying applicants should have a letter from UC stating entitlement - do you have one of these, it does seem they are supposed to ask if you are still entitled and to warn you that you could face a fine if not, but that wont negate the fine if they didn't, as it seems from other info I have read pharmacists have been subject to violence and abuse if they do ask so would seem they would rather rely on the NHSBSA investigating (and I cant say I blame them)

The tax payers money that I was talking about is the tax payers money that goes towards funding the NHS including the money they have to use for 'admin' to deal with people who dispute fines. And as I stated, if you were not aware that at 60 you would get free prescriptions then you would have expected to have a DD still set up and money taken out of your bank account the fact you didn't notice is not an excuse that the NHSBSA would really accept, what did you think when your new card didn't turn up in the post? On what grounds have you already appealed you could go down the 'can show that you did not act wrongfully, with any lack of care' route https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/penalty-charges/prescription-exemption-checking-service but they could argue you did show lack of care by not checking your bank statements but it may be worth a second try

Let me help you save a bit of tax payers money look at the tear off strip that you get when you get a prescription it clearly says the exemption must be valid on the day you are asked to pay this link will help http://psnc.org.uk/dispensing-supply/receiving-a-prescription/patient-charges/exemptions/ the relevant part is under questions. The amount of the fine is part of the The National Health Service (Penalty Charge) Regulations 1999 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/2794/contents/made whether you think its too high is another matter but legally that's what they can charge so I don't think you will get much joy from the small claims court So it boils down to who is responsible for ensuring that you have an up to date valid exemption and I am afraid the answer is you and that's made very clear on the prescriptions and on posters in the pharmacy If you hadn't been coming up to 60 and therefore soon to be exempt (which you state you were not aware of anyway) when would you have expected the DD to come out of your account to cover your prescriptions after 12/03 when would you have expected to receive your new PPC exemption certificate with the new valid from and to date, and why if the DD did not come out of your account and a new certificate wasn't issued didn't you yourself query it before you got your next prescription

Sorry I am not sure why you are bumping this, if its a genuine mistake then that's what you or your friend tell them and show the evidence from the GP, no-one here can say what the outcome of the appeal will be only the NHSBSA can make that decision, so your friend needs to appeal as soon as possible I linked you to the page where the details of how to contact them are and that's what you need to do

It depends on your household income, there are a couple of ways you and your partner can get help with health costs including dental treatment, if your household income is low enough you can apply for help under the NHS low income scheme or if your partner claims certain tax credits then you can also get help This link will help http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcosts/Pages/help-with-health-costs.aspx