Everyone please be aware of a NHS FRAUD which they say is "legal" and there is no defence!

For many years I have had an NHS PPC (pre payment card) for my regular prescriptions.

I was not aware that on my 60th Birthday, I would no longer have to pay for prescriptions...

But the NHS did, and so in their kindness CANCELLED my PPC arrangement PRIOR to my Birthday (they say they will do this if your renewal is less than 9 months from your birthday).

They say they wrote to me in Feb - but I did not see any letter from them them until April / May!

They say they "wrote to me".

Now have to pay for the prescription I collected a few days between the expiry of my card and my 60th Birthday, plus £100.80 fine!

I accept paying the £16 or so for the prescription, however I feel that the £100.80 PENALTY payment required on top is out of all proportion to the event that they themselves engineered!

Even if they did write to me to inform me - they made no attempt to confirm that I had been notified - but they say there is no defence: I signed to say I had a valid PPC when I did not (because THEY cancelled it, NOT me!), therefore I commited Fraud!

Please be aware of this NHS fraud and do not get trapped!

I am still arguing with them - but they say there are no grounds and I must pay.

If I commited Fraud, it is because they created the situation!

Is this another way of raising money for the NHS?

Correction - £84.00 fine - £100.80 in total (including prescription payment)

So, correct me if I'm wrong but they didn't cancel an existing card they just prevented it from being renewed as you were turning 60 within days of the expiry of the card?

I guess as an argument - you are correct - However, they they didn't actually "prevent" renewal - they merely failed to automatically renew - having supposedly told me (no traceability on the snail mail) that they were NOT going to renew. A message I did not see until at least 2 months after they sent it (for whatever reasons). So I saw this letter at least a month after I had signed that I had a PPC - which I believed to be true.

I am have elevated my responses to them to an "official complaint".

I have just received this reply to my latest questions from them:

>>

Thank you for your email regarding prescription exemption checks.

1. Your very first Pre Payment Certificate (PPC) was set up in 14/02/2011, and it was valid from 13/03/2011 up until 12/03/2012, you have had a PPC for every year since then.

2. Your last PPC expired on 12/03/2017.

3. You picked up your prescription on 15/03/2017. (this information was stamped on by the pharmacy when you picked up your prescription).

My birthday is on the 26th, so this is a very narrow window. In fact, I should have picked up my prescription earlier - in fact, I will try to find out when the prescription was raised. Perhaps I can argue that at the time the prescription was raised, I was under a PPC ? This may be useful in my court action. I intend taking this to small claims court as I am asserting that the fine is in total disproportion to the prescription or the value of the drugs. (I will ask my Pharmacy for the value of the drugs as part of my defence.)

On second thoughts, I will also ask this question of the NHS - Every question I ask them costs them money in Admin to respond!

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

I don't wish to save the "penalty" tax that I am having to pay

- I am going to cost the NHS money in admin in return for the money they are stealing from me

- I am spending MY money, not the "Taxpayers".

They cancelled my payments, so they caused the problem.

Oh Yes, it's all very well saying "look at your bank statement"

- I have several bank accounts and several credit cards.

I check them all regularly for incorrect or suspicious payments

- but I don't go studying each one for a payment that has not been taken, or taken late unless it has come to my attention for some reason.

And as I was not aware the exemption at 60 years old,

I had no reason to scrutinise my regular PPC payment.

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

I don't wish to save the "penalty" tax that I am having to pay - I am going to cost the NHS money in admin in return for the money they are stealing from me - I am spending MY money, not the "Taxpayers". They cancelled my payments, so they caused the problem. Oh Yes, it's all very well saying "look at your bank statement" - I have several bank accounts and several credit cards. I check them all regularly for incorrect or suspicious payments - but I don't go studying each one for a payment that has not been taken, or taken late unless it has come to my attention for some reason. And as I was not aware the exemption at 60 years old, I had no reason to scrutinise my regular PPC payment.

So, to summarise:

You signed to say that you had something which you did not,

despite the fact that the very thing you signed explains that it is your responsibility to check and in an act of petulant revenge you're going to somehow 'punish' the NHS for following the terms you had explicitly signed your acceptance of in collecting your medication because your financial arrangements aren't sufficiently well organised?

How wonderfully public spirited of you...

NO I am saying as I stated earlier that the NHS engineered this situation. I accept paying for the prescription, but I think the penalty is out of all proportion in the circumstance. So if I have to pay a "penalty" then I will derive satisfaction from the NHS suffering an "Admin Penalty" at my expense.

I have worked full time all my life (until being made redundant recently), they have had plenty of money out of me already. And they can forget any "goodwill" from me in the future regarding any fundraising to help the NHS. They have burnt their bridge.

The NHS did not, as you put it, 'engineer' anything. No one sat in an office with the sole intent of creating a gap of a few days in which you had been identified as being likely to collect your medication and thereby commit fraud. Instead, they operated within their publicly available terms and conditions. Your ignorance of these and any defence based on the same is meaningless the moment you signed the prescription to indicate your acceptance and understanding of those very conditions. If this were the consumer contract section of CAG the first question anyone would ask is 'what did you sign and what where the Ts and Cs. A lifetime of work and contributions is admirable, no doubt but it does not mean that your entitlement to prescription medication changes. The system, in its entirety can only work when rules / terms / conditions are fairly and consistently applied to all. Nevertheless, although your goodwill toward the NHS may have ended, you and your family can rest well knowing that NHS' goodwill and commitment to providing care has not.

So they wrote to you to tell you what they had done, But you say it took you 2 months to read it for "Whatever reasons"

Does that mean that you just didn't bother opening it and reading it until you received your fine ?