§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, what is his estimate of the numbers of patients who would need to be reimbursed through social security offices if prescription charges were raised to 50p per item of prescription.
§ Dr. Vaughan, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 24 May 1979; Vol. 967, c. 209], gave the following answer:
Separate details are not kept of the number of patients who are reimbursed previously paid prescription charges through social security offices but the following estimates may be of interest.
If the prescription charge was increased to 50p and the tolerance margin remained at 30p about 180,000 additional non-pensioner "heads of household" might become eligible for low-income exemption. If the tolerance margin was increased to 75p in parallel with an increase to 50p in the charge itself some 266,000 additional non-pensioner "heads of household" might become eligible. At present only a very small percentage of those eligible claim exemption.