Prescription Charges

Can't agree with those who state that free prescriptions should be stopped and PC increased by £30. Many older people are taking several medications - just 4 would cost over £37. I know it is possible to buy a "season ticket" but how many pensioners on a low income would be able to find in excess of £100? Surely the people to ask about this are those who are on a low income - not those who are "able to pay".

Although I believe that medicine should be free in principle I would argue for a small dispensing fee to be charged, say £1 per item.
This would act as a deterrent to those who collect their free prescription then stockpile the medicine.
I have firsthand experience of older people especially having large amounts of medicines they did not use.
I also have experience of selling items where when offered free were snapped up but when a tiny sum was asked suddenly very few were interested.

Good post griwstuff.

There is a lot of emotive language here. Welbeck, obviously it would be grossly unfair for people on a low income to have to pay. Just as it's silly for people who can afford it, at whatever age, to get prescriptions free.

People whose only income is Carer's Allowance should enquire about an HC2 certificate, which grants eligibility for free prescriptions, dentistry and eye tests.

there are people who are over 60, yet are not earning a wage.
they will not get their pension until at least 66.
some may be in receipt of carer's allowance, which equates to less than 10 pounds a day to live on.
hopefully they may have a few savings, being used for bills etc.
of course, once they receive the state pension, then the carer's allowance is no longer paid. so not living high on the hog.
anyway, carers who have had to pay for their own prescriptions until age 60, may have been glad of that little concession once they reached 60.
but some posters think it's unreasonable extravagance for the govt.
try living on 10 pounds a day.

Good analogy doodledog sensible post as usual

Many don't realise that not all prescriptions are "free", a wig prescription is around £75.70, even if you are over 60!

Or, just give everyone free prescriptions.....

Doodledog the majority of tthose living on state pension only are doing it because they never earned enough to be able to save for their retirement. I spent 10 years visiting elderly people at home completing benfit forms . I meant many who worked as farmworkers, labourers in all kinds of industries who considere themselves fortunate if they had saved up enough to pay for their funeral.

If you increase PC, by, say £30 a week, or whatever the average value of these extras is, it gives everyone now on PC an extra £30 or so a week, they are at no disadvantage as instead of getting little ring fenced sums of money, thy get them as a regular add on to their weekly pension and a rise in PC brings in many other people under the protection of PC, who now do not get it.

he whole point of what I think should happen will leave poorer pensioners at worst in the same position as they are, and could also, hopefully give them a few more £s a week in income.

I only once met anyone, who should and could have saved for their old age, but didn't.

If you have lots of prescriptions you get a season ticket that costs £108 a year, and covers all prescriptions, no matter how many you need That is a cost just a few pennies more than £2.00 a week.

I was surprised when I reached 60 that prescription charges became free. I was not getting my pension until I was 66, so still paying NI and tax, didn't understand why this was free, couldn't believe any Government had not changed this?
Sorry I think you should pay charges if you are still working.
The cost of some drugs is eye-watering.
You can but am Annual prescription charge for £108 ish which covers everything.
This is aimed at future 66 year olds not those already getting this benefit.

If every pensioner can have a bus pass then there is no stigma in having one. If, like AlegriasI and me, you are fortunate enough to have a reasonable income, you pay tax. I don't see a problem here. My husband pays more tax than he would if we didn't live in Scotland, but he gets his prescriptions free. He is happy to pay the extra tax - it is the price we pay for living in a reasonably civilised society.

Monica as I explained I don’t get PC but my yearly pension income is below the PC level but I have about a years worth of care fees in a special account which takes me over the level to get PC and I accept, that it’s my choice to keep those savings for a ‘rainy day’
You really think I should lose my bus pass because some people can’t use them I don’t get your logic
If the bus passes went in my area the buses would cease over night as no one else uses them

I am in full time work at 61 but have a few medical issues that require monthly prescriptions. Before 60 I was happy to pay the annual prescription fee. However, I do feel for those on low incomes who are finding it difficult making ends meet who are forced to work until 66 with health issues. Many have paid many years of contributions to their pension only to see the date of their state pension moved, sometimes twice. It doesn't seem fair.

Oh Doodledog your analogy is exactly right, good on ‘ya!

I agree that doling out ring fenced benefits is condescending, but I also think that people should not be forced to decide between eating and being healthy. For many, the cost of a prescription passport could represent 3 weeks' groceries.

I also feel that giving everything to those on PC and making those who saved into occupational pensions pay for everything is unfair. If we want people to provide for themselves in retirement we need to stop the system that gives free social care, free rent, free prescriptions and so on to those who don't save into pensions, and nothing to those who do. Where is the incentive there?

It would be wrong to cut the living standards of those on PC, and there is no real way to justify paying the rent of those who are excluded from it, so the fairest way I can think of is to at least stop means-testing things like prescriptions and social care.

I also take issue with those who think they can decide what others can afford. It implies that there is a baseline that older people should live on, and that everything above that is an extravagance to which they are not entitled, even if they have saved all their lives to get it.

As a daft example that I assume won't apply to anyone reading, if someone has spent their life working towards being able to eat caviar for every meal in old age, why should they have to forego that in order to pay for blood thinners or whatever, when their neighbour who ate caviar for every meal as a young person so now has no money left gets their prescriptions free?

Bluebelle But if pension credit went up £30 a week you might well benefit from that. And what about those with even less money than you who cannot use bus passes because there is no bus, or the bus sto is too far away for them to walk there, so have to pay for taxis or run cars? I know people on basic pension only who have to run cars because there is no alternative.

Anyway, if free passes went I think the bus companies, like the railways, will bring in their own pensioner bus card that enables cheap travel on the buses, probably limited to outside the rush hour, but still cheaper than paying full fare.

Loved your typo BlueBelle , with a name like that you should have a ‘bud pass’ ! I totally agree with you by the way , in that many of the ‘financially comfortable ‘ posters are very quick to say they don’t understand why these easements , I refuse to call them’benefits’ are needed.

Well it’s easy to say the free bus pass should go if you are a family car owner/driver monica without my free bus pass my life would be miserable and no I m not on pension credit because when I left work I but some money in a savings account for when I need care of some kind so that negates me from going onto pension credit although my weekly pension is under the amount I m expected to need to live on
I ve sucked up the other things the dentist prices, the tv licence, I can manage on a low income but do not take my bud pass away it’s my only means of movement for longer walking/cycling trips

Of course people of our age are able to decide what to spend their money on MOnica , and there would be many who would have plenty of practice if this went ahead , deciding on what they could do without in order to afford their prescriptions!?

Doodledog but the same thing happened when the retirement age was 60 - and often mandatory, no choice like today.

I have said often and I will repeat. I think all the bells and whistle, free prescriptions, winter fuel allowance, free bus passes, I used to say tv licence, but that has already gone ,should all go.

The Pension Credit limit could then be increased sufficiently to ensure that those now on PC are not out of pocket. Raising the PC limit, say, £30 a week, would then bring many more people into the PC net and those above it, of which I am one can pay for all these things out for themselves.

I have always it considered it demeaning to older people that we are given these carefully ring fenced benefits, as if we could not be trusted to do make our own decisions about how we spend our money.

Also pensioner benefit from these benefits is variable from person. if you do not get regular medication you lose out on free prescriptions. Some people through disability or the absence of buses cannot benefit from free buspasses, and have to rely on taxis or running a car, or a voluntary car service, for which they receive no monetary aid to balance against those using buspasses.

Isn't it great getting older as all the things we thought we'd get aren't happening. No pension no reduced travel and now having to possibly choose whether you can afford a prescription.

kittylester

I am on 7 different medications and could get them all for a out £100 pa.

It seems disingenuous to me to expect the nhs to remain the same, with everything free, as it costs so much more to run and people are living longer because of advances in treatment.

Surely, if I buy a prescription passport i am, in effect, paying more tax.

I paid more tax anyway because I was lucky enough to have a well-paying job. Are we to expect people who are unwell to pay more tax than those who manage to stay healthier?

I am on 7 different medications and could get them all for a out £100 pa.

It seems disingenuous to me to expect the nhs to remain the same, with everything free, as it costs so much more to run and people are living longer because of advances in treatment.

Surely, if I buy a prescription passport i am, in effect, paying more tax.

And is it any coincidence that prescriptions doubled in the over 60s ten years ago when the retirement age changed? A lot of these people are now on 4 or 5 medications

M0nica

All these benefits from 60 were brought in when the retirement age (for women) was 60.

I can see no reason why the age they become available should not rise with the retirement age.

The trouble with that is that a lot of people who expected to retire at 60 are already living lives that are far from how they'd planned. Then there are those who decided not to wait until 66, but to leave work when their husbands do, or because of their health, and based their decisions to do so on the expectation of getting free prescriptions.

Those who say that 'some people can afford it' - what do you suggest that these people should give up in order to pay for the things that you have decided that they can afford?