What happens if you can't afford your medication?

[Frequency]

I can btw, this is not a begging thread, but I'm taking the money from my savings, and I don't always have money in my savings, which has got me pondering.

If I didn't have savings and my asthma medication ran out, is there a scheme where I can buy now, pay later, or is it a case of risking death or needing A&E?

Are there any other life-saving medications you have to pay for, or is it just asthma? I know my mum gets free prescriptions because she needs thyroid medication, but that doesn't seem as serious or life-threatening as asthma to me.

What's the criteria for a medication being free, and why doesn't it seem to make sense?

No, it shows exactly what experience I had when suddenly faced with £85 quid of medication I desperately needed and couldn't pay for following a period where I didn't fill my usual prescriptions because of an unexpected bill.

Nobody is going to face a bill of £85 for medication - you can simply buy a prepayment at that point.

So at most the OP, or anyone, would find themselves needing to find the £11odd for that month's payment.

Suggesting someone could find themselves needing to find £85 is just nonsense scaremongering.

Ask your prescriber to switch you to something with more puffs per inhaler as you can’t afford to buy them regularly enough.

Although I’m not actually certain there’s anyone in the uk who can’t afford 20p per day for essential medication.

That's the point. I did. Because I had decided I wouldn't worry about it until I needed to buy one, things got worse financially, couldn't pay for one prescription, got ill, needed multiple items and couldn't pay for those either. So I went without. That's not scaremongering, it's experience.

OP is apparently never going to be stuck for cash despite that being the entire premise of the thread and will never need more than one item. I guess she's got adult children to get money from, rather than keep the lights off until little ones break into their piggy banks for her.

pretty sure you get free prescriptions if on benefits though @Frequency

This still makes no sense. Why did you pay £85 instead of buying the PPC, as you say you planned? Also, if I find myself in a position where I don't have £10, I'm not going to simultaneously have £11 for that month's payment, am I?

Even the NHS says the PPC is aimed at people who need 11+ items per year, i.e not me. It doesn't benefit people like me who do not need 11+ items per year. I'm not in a position to spend money on things that have no value or benefit for me, and even if I were, I wouldn't, because it's a waste of money.

@EleanorReally UC doesn't automatically entitle you to free prescriptions. If you earn more than £435 a month as a single person or £935 a month as a parent, you're not entitled. Can you really not see how someone earning less than £500 a month could struggle to find £11 a month for a PPC or £9.90 for a prescription?

The NHS low-income scheme is a good idea, but it's not widely advertised. The first time I heard of it was in this thread. It also takes upto 18 days and only covers the full cost of the prescription if your outgoings are more or equal to your income. If your outgoings are £400 but your income is £401, you only get costs to cover half of the price of the prescription.

i dont know anything about which benefit gives you free prescriptions @Frequency
that is for those on benefits to look into

Its free in Scotland too.

It'd be interesting to see how Scotland et al compares with England in terms of medication adherence and preventable deaths. I know the charities for Crohn's and Parkinson's have studies showing that free prescriptions for their patients would save the NHS £20m a year overall, but I don't think other charities have looked into it.

I imagine it's difficult for some charities to determine if a preventable death was due to poor adherence to medication/care by the patient or poor advice given by the GP. One of Asthma UK's biggest areas of campaigning is improving first-line care and understanding of asthma, as they found inhalers were not being properly prescribed and reviews weren't being offered when patients were overusing inhalers.

That's the point. I did. Because I had decided I wouldn't worry about it until I needed to buy one, things got worse financially, couldn't pay for one prescription, got ill, needed multiple items and couldn't pay for those either. So I went without. That's not scaremongering, it's experience.

It is scaremongering to claim someone could face a bill of £85 for medication because you can pay for the prepayment cert then and there.

So the most anyone needs to find in that situation is the first monthly payment for a cert.

OP is apparently never going to be stuck for cash despite that being the entire premise of the thread and will never need more than one item. I guess she's got adult children to get money from, rather than keep the lights off until little ones break into their piggy banks for her.

The OP literally says she can afford it, she was wondering what happens if people cannot. That's the premise of the thread.

Someone earning £435 is working part time clearly. But a 30 year old earning £440 will be taking home a total of just under £600 a month and be eligible for housing help. And eligible for council tax reduction.

The low income scheme isnt and instant cut off. If the amounts are close but you are over, you can absolutely still be awarded full help. And partial help has no set amount it helps with - it is calculated for your circumstances.

Because you say you are taking the money from your savings to pay for it

it’s less than £10

i can’t imagine having zero in bank account but then having savings and transferring £10 across to pay for it

this is why people think you are struggling and suggest the pre Payment

equally the monthly fee is good as covers for as many as need - I have 4 I have month ongoing

first time I was WTF and cost was almost £40. Then released was going to be an ongoing repeat and now 3.5yrs later still on same 4

a month later even I did another £40 the chemist said to me if this is going to be a regular to do prepayment.

so I did and got the money refunded back what I had spent previous month

many people don’t know this and again why many posters are saying get one

If you can't imagine why a single-income household might have nothing left in their current account a couple of weeks after Christmas, a period where people are usually paid early so need to go longer between paydays, less than one week before payday, in the middle of a cold snap and cost of living crisis, you're very privileged.

And this is my point, whether you can't imagine how someone might not have £10 a month left after essentials or not, doesn't mean it doesn't happen or that person is frittering money away watching their kettle boil instead of paying for medication.

I can't think of a single reason why 51 charities would bother spending time and money on campaigning against prescription charges if they weren't a genuine issue for some people, when they could be focusing on actual problems instead.

I can imagine why someone has nothing

many waiting for jan pay day

but you said you have savings

that’s the difference

I'm not understanding why having savings when many have nothing and are waiting for Jan pay day points to me being unable to manage my budget, surely it's the opposite?

I am aware my budget is not massive and might not always cover extra expenses like Christmas and a higher than usual gas usage, so on the months I don't have extra expenses, and do have money left at the end of the month, it goes into my savings to cover months like this and/or pay for large, one off purchases I might need.

I'm also aware that a lot of people on low incomes don't ever have anything left at the end of the month to put away for future use, no matter how carefully they budget.

Yes, £11 a month is not much and should be easy to find if you cut back, but that's assuming you haven't already cut back on everything you can. Not many people who are living pay day to pay day, with nothing left at the end of the month and not enough to cover bills and travel, will be carrying on as normal and buying whatever they fancy in their weekly shop. Most will already be cutting back to the bare bones. Of course, they could cut back even more; it's only 20p a day or whatever someone worked it out as.

They could only have one cup of black coffee a day, only ever use their washing machine once a week off-peak on eco-mode (if they are not already doing that), and sit in the dark most nights, but are we really saying that someone living in the 6th biggest economy in the world should have to live that way just to afford life-saving medications?

You're paying for Netflix but saying you can't afford your life-saving medication?!

Yes, I also spend £14234210 a day on crack cocaine and strippers.

Try reading the thread before hoiking up your judgy-pants.

No need to be a twat about it, you literally said you're paying for Netflix. Seems like a no-brainer if you care about your health? But you're too busy being defensive because you know you're being unreasonable. It's not about judging. I am on medication and there's no way I'd go without it just to watch TV. Sorry if that painful truth hurts.

This still makes no sense. Why did you pay £85 instead of buying the PPC, as you say you planned?

I didn't. I hadn't planned, I assumed that it would be fine with just the one regular prescription. Then I had an unexpected bill, so couldn't pay for that one prescription. Repeat the next month because the bill was pretty chunky, need a couple of days off sick because I wasn't taking the regular medication, now down a couple of days' pay so no money for the next prescription...go into a massive flare, can't work, lose more money...finally get to the hospital and they have to change the entire medication regime and introduce multiple new things at a cost of £85 I couldn't afford, either. And I couldn't afford the PPC by that point due to the reduction in pay due to being off sick. Eventually sorted out by getting so ill that the latest medication (one that didn't require a separate, chargeable prescription for four other items to prevent potentially fatal side effects) was delivered by a private NHS contractor and therefore wasn't in the situation. Had I purchased a PPC earlier when I didn't have an unexpectedly high bill round the corner, I wouldn't have missed the normal medication, never mind the far more expensive ones I subsequently needed as a result of missing the normal stuff.

Also, if I find myself in a position where I don't have £10, I'm not going to simultaneously have £11 for that month's payment, am I?
Even the NHS says the PPC is aimed at people who need 11+ items per year, i.e not me. It doesn't benefit people like me who do not need 11+ items per year. I'm not in a position to spend money on things that have no value or benefit for me, and even if I were, I wouldn't, because it's a waste of money.

It's a pretty big fucking benefit to not have to worry about needing something else, as the costs are already sorted for an unlimited number of items. Turn out to be allergic to something? Oh, well, get something else prescribed. Doctor says you need 3 items this month, not 1? You've got wheezier despite getting your usual inhaler and it turns out you've got a chest infection needing treatment? No problem, it's already been paid for. Trip over the cat and break your ankle or your tooth cracks and there's an abscess forming underneath the day after you've paid the usual prescription charge? No mind, just get a prescription for appropriate pain relief and antibiotics.

I get that being on low wages is shit. God knows we did it for long enough - blobbing the rent to be able to pay for DP's medication, still not having enough money for food and somebody from work coming round with 10 bags of value pasta and tins of beans and tomatoes wasn't exactly the professional image I wanted to portray when trying to get a promotion.

But the idea is that you don't have to give any mental energy to what would happen and it's not fair because you planned in advance when things weren't quite so shit, meaning that if your health suddenly tanks for whatever reason, at least you can get treatment. For an extra £1.55 a month. Not even 4pts of milk.

It's a small increase that potentially saves so, so much money and pain/discomfort/illness in the future.

It is a small amount, but it is a small amount that I don't need to spend. It would be highly unusual for me to have nothing in my current account and nothing in my savings account at the same time. I'm not saying it could never happen. It could, but it would take something extreme like the dog breaking his leg and my work PC exploding in the same month to wipe out my savings and my current account in one month, and then for me to suddenly need £85 of meds in the same month when for the past two years I've only spent £85 a year.

Can you not see how absurdly unlikely that is?

It's more likely I could have nothing in one account and only a few quid in the other. That's happened towards the end of some months if I've used my savings for something big and had an unexpectedly expensive month, bills-wise, but I'd only need £11 to buy the PPC.

When I said I don't always have money in my savings, what I meant was I'm not rich enough for my savings to be for nothing, they are always being saved towards something like decorating a room that desperately needs decorating or a weekend away, or an upgrade for my PC. I'd only ever spend every last penny in there if I knew all the bills had been covered that month and I reasonable amount in my current account to see me through to the next month.

And if I am unlucky enough for all three of those unlikely occurrences to happen at once, I would be very disappointed and surprised at my adult children if they allowed me to get sicker/stay sick and didn't offer to dip into their very healthy savings to buy me a PPC/pay for my scripts. Especially since the only reason they can preserve their savings as much as they do is that they live here rent and bill-free.

I shouldn't have to explain my finances in that much detail for posters to accept that I do not need a PPC. It will not benefit me; it will cost me more.

Me replying, "I have looked into those, and they don't work out cheaper for me," should be enough. Pages and pages and pages of posters insisting I do need one, no matter what I say, is insulting. I am able to read the terms and conditions on the PPC info page online and decide for myself. I'm poor, not stupid.

To add to that, if I ever do struggle enough to regularly have nothing in both accounts, I still fail to see how trying to find an extra £30 a year that I probably wouldn't ever need would help me tighten my budget.

It might only be £1.55 a week, but if I were regularly being left with nothing after budgeting, it is obviously £1.55 a week I don't have to spare. Unless, again, posters are assuming I am too stupid to reduce my outgoings to match my income and leave some spare for emergencies as much as possible, so had it been the case, it is still insulting to insist something will benefit me after I continually explain that I've looked into it and it won't.

I have an under active thyroid, so get all my prescriptions free. Obviously I take it, but I could actually afford them, and I do think it’s unfair it’s not down to ability to pay. (Though I’m paying for Wegovy as I can’t get it on the NHS)

I work in community mental health nursing and I remember in the first lockdown doing a phone assessment on a client. He’d started working as a self employed painter and decorator but not long enough to get the government payment for small businesses. Obviously didnt get furloughed as he was working for himself. I assume at some point he got UC but at the time he had no money. He couldn’t afford his prescription so his mental health had declined. I felt really bad as I was working and earning and still getting my prescriptions free.

So all in all this is in fact a ridiculous hypothetical post since the op has Netflix and savings pots for various future expenses. This person can clearly save £1.50 a week for medication instead of putting it into her wallpapering fund

Tempting as it may well be, be prepared to be caught and prosecuted.

I recently got a letter from the NHS Business Authority, stating id claimed a prepayment certificate I didn't own and that this was fraud. I actually get free prescriptions as I'm on thyroxine and had ticked the wrong box on the prescription. Obviously it was clarified as human error and I was able to quote my certificate number for their reference. But don't think it's possible to get away with. Also by doing this means the NHS has to pay for fraud by, I imagine, increasing the prescription fee.

I know it's no good if you're really strapped for cash, but you can get a prepaid prescription card which costs around £30 a quarter (year). So 30 pounds every 3 months.
Worth getting if you have to get prescriptions regularly.
(This thread a timely reminder to me to pull my finger out and apply for one as been spending around that much a month recently due to recent health scares/shit!)

It was literally a pondering about people who couldn't afford - no more ridiculous than 99% of threads on here.

It was never about the OP personally not being able to afford it - she literally said "I can" in their first sentence.

Despite the weird desperation of some posters to make it about the OP and their dire need of a PPc