A drain on the NHS

Do you actually know anyone fitting that description, ana?

OK - I seem to have got that wrong.

But as absent says, NI is probably not relevant.

If you have never worked because you went straight from home to get married or live with someone, didn't have children and never worked then you wouldn't have NI credits. Especially if you were in a same-sex relationship or didn't actually marry.

I meant NI credits

ana if you have never worked for a particular reason e.g. mentally infirm. disabled etc etc, you get pension credits. There are a number of reasons allowable.

One problem with people who are not entitled to free NHS care is that the NHS is not properly geared up for charging them and, even when they are charged, some simply don't pay. If someone has expensive treatment and then simply leaves the country without paying, not much can be done about it. They certainly can't keep someone in hospital until they have come up with the money – not when there are already so many complaints about elderly bed blockers. Hospitals cannot be turned into debtors' prisons.

Insisting on showing a passport wouldn't help either. I have a UK passport but I am not entitled to free NHS care as I don't live in the UK, although I do pay UK taxes. There must be plenty of people who live, work and pay taxes in the UK who are not British citizens, so don't hold a British passport but who are entitled to free NHS care. I suppose their passports would contain residency or work permit authorisation of some sort.

Free NHS care does not depend on how many NI contributions have been made and nor should it.

Maybe, but what if you'd been born and bred in the UK and never paid any NI contributions?

But wouldn't it tell the different agencies how many contributions you had made?

So it wouldn't prove that you'd been here long enough to claim free NHS treatment.

I thought you could get one of those as soon as you've moved to the UK, in order to apply for work.

So what is your NI number for then?

MIL never had a passport because she never left the UK.

There must be quite a few people like her.

From what I've seen of the daily papers' front pages today, the passport stuff was the Mail's main story.

The bit about the Nigerian mother was just an inset story, given as an example of how the NHS has been abused by some in the past.

The 2011 one was a woman from Nigeria who (it said) came to Britain to stay with her sister while pregnant with QUINS so as to get free maternity treatment (although maternity treatment is not free to overseas visitors, maybe she waited until she was in labour and became an emergency - a risky thing to do IMO). There was no further news about her in the Sun or the Mail after that but quite a lot of coverage in Nigerian papers. The passport stuff was in the Mail's revival of that story today. I put a link to it above (at 18:08:04) Wonder why the Mail has bumped the story pre-election? #cynicalemoticon

The woman set to become the worlds oldest mother of quads is a different story.

Are you on the right thread, nina?

(Thanks Eloethan)

Ana - I think the anger can lead to rage and the rage to hatred . What is doesn't do is try to get people to think.

The Daily MIRROR states the woman set to become the worlds oldest mother of quads
That makes it sound as if she's still pregnant, no mention of a birth in 2011

Did anyone read about the plan to make people take their passport to hospital when they go to prove they are entitled to treatment?

That's what the reviewer said, Ana.

(not referring to your non-existent link, obviously, Elegran! )

Yes, clever stuff! Anger, certainly, but I don't know about hatred.

Those who like this kind of thing will find this the kind of thing they like.

(From a review of a dire film)

What I love about the DM is its unerring ability to know which buttons to press to provoke anger and hatred

Not everyone, Elegran! Readers of other daily newspapers will surely find something carefully chosen to inflame their sensibilities just as often.

I wonder what else they will dredge up from their archives to keep everyone simmering nicely?