hello all

i was previously claiming ESA for the last 2 years, then failed a health assessment last december saying i have 0 points but my condition has got worse and not better.

i was rejected and made a claim for mandatory reconsideration and spoke to my GP about what i should do with my nhs prescriptions, since i need 14 diff medicines every 2 weeks on repeat, he gave me a sick note and told me to post it to them with my mandatory consideration form ad then told me to just continue signing the ESA tick box, ifelt uneasy about it but he told me it will be fine and if theres any problems just direct them to him.

after a dentist appointment i was set a letter yesterday saying we found out your not in recipt of ESA and now own a penalty charge of 18GBP + 108 ad have 28 days to pay or else +48GBP will be added on top

im so stressed i have no money at all to pay for this and am still waiting for my mandatory descision

am i in big trouble? should i go back and tell my GP?

Your GP is incorrect and I am surprised they have said this to you as this could lead to some hefty fines and besides you have claimed for free dental treatment not medication and I doubt whether your GP could intervene in dental matters even if he was able to.

This being said, what Income based benefits are you on, are you now on JSA even though you are seeking ESA??? if this is the case then you have to tick the box for IB JSA,. as the NHSBSA will not look at what other benefits you are claiming or may be entitled to they will only look at what you have said you are entitled to when you filled out the form , if you say its ESA and you are not on it then that's why you have been fined, were you given anything in the letter to fill in for an explanation or appeal if you are actually on IB JSA that's where you tell them

Going forward, if you are not claiming any IB benefits then you cant claim free prescriptions under the benefit criteria although you could get entitlement under the low income scheme, if you are on JSA then you have to tick the JSA box.

It would be very much in your own interest to clarify your actual entitlement as soon as possible because you may get hit with other fines.

To anyone else on here, I have NEVER heard of any GP actually being able to stop fines or intervene on a patients behalf, that's why I believe the OP has been given bad advice by their GP, if anyone knows any different I would like to hear about it as my job frequently requires me to advise people on NHS fines

pay up or it will cost you lot more as we found out, even when O.H. changed from one allowance to the other, the dentist did not inform not covered, fight on and you end up out of pocket, as we found out> even to the extent O.H. offered only £1.48 unemployment per week and I told them not to bother as the bus fare twice a week will cost £5.00 to sign on etc etc

and that happened after she paid Nation Insurance for 26 years.

thanks for the reply guys

after showing my GP the letter he called CAB and told them the situation, they said if i win my ESA appeal it will backdate my ESA to before the dentist appointment so it will nullify the charge, since i have a pretty much 100% chance to win my appeal with having all my medical evidence i should be fine until then, the nhs extended my time by 28 days, and if i dont finish my appeal before then they told me to contact them again so they can further extend it

i have been unfit for work for years it is low income based ESA and because of the sudden change i was still told to sign ESA for prescriptions and etc until my ESA is back so it would overturn the decision and charges, hopefully i wont lose my appeal but there is no reason i would be losing since im pretty sure my case is pretty extraordinary.

once again thx guys

I must say I am so pleased for you, you want to hang on to your GP not many would go the extra mile like that

I hope it all works out for you

update on the matter:

called nhs a few times during the whole proccess and they were very friendly on the phone, giving me time extentions for 28 days twice, by the time i got near the end of the 2nd time extention i showed my sick note from the gp to my jobcentre, they signed it and put me back on ESA backdated from the date of the appointment of dental treatmenet, i sent a copy of this evidence to nhs and they nullify the whole charge

everything worked out ^^