§ Dr. Stuttafordasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what categories of people are entitled to remission or refund of prescription charges under the new arrangements, and how many people he estimates to be in each category.
§ Sir K. JosephIn Great Britain about 12.9 million children under 15 years old and 7 million people aged 65 or over are entitled to claim exemption simply by completing a declaration on the reverse side of the prescription form. A further 3 million persons are eligible for exemption in a similar way if they are covered by valid certificates of exemption. This last group includes
About 450,000 persons suffering from certain specified medical conditions;About 940,000 expectant mothers and mothers of children under one year of age;About 240,000 war and service pensioners, not exempt on age grounds, 42W in respect of prescriptions for treatment of their accepted disablements; andAbout 1,360,000 persons between 15 and 65 years of age who are recipients of supplementary benefit, or their dependants.In addition, people not in receipt of supplementary benefit or otherwise exempt but with incomes at or about supplementary benefit level, and their dependants, may be eligible for short-term exemption certificates or refunds.
As from August, 1971, families who qualify for the new Family Income Supplement will be entitled to automatic exemption from payment of prescription charges. It is estimated that this will make a further 300,000 persons eligible for exemption.
Anyone who is not otherwise exempt but requires frequent prescriptions is able to limit his expenditure on charges by obtaining a prepayment certificate for six months or 12 months on payment of £2.00 or £3.50 respectively. The estimated number of holders of prepayment certificates at the end of 1970 was 80,000 and indications are that applications have increased significantly since then.
All these categories taken together represent about 43 per cent. of the population and over 50 per cent. of prescriptions.