To think blanket free prescriptions for over 60s NEED to end?

[Idratherbepaddleboarding]

I know this will be controversial but I popped to the doctors in my lunch break to collect my prescription and joined a longish queue. Everyone in front of me was over 60 and collecting huge bags of medications and I was the only one paying for any of it.

I don’t dispute that I should have to pay but often I can’t afford it which has led to me having to miss days of my medication, leaving me feeling very emotional and at times suicidal (medication is for depression). Perhaps if everyone who has over a certain income had to pay, they’d be able to lower the prescription charge for everyone or be able to afford the pay rises they say they can’t afford for nurses and junior doctors.

The killer was that every single one of the people in front of me got back into massive, brand new SUVs, one couple into a Range Rover and another into a Jaguar. If they can afford to own (and run!) cars like that, paying for a prescription would be a drop in the ocean for them. AIBU to think that free prescriptions should be limited to those in pension credit just like Universal Credit?

When DH’s grandad died, his mum and auntie shared out his collection of prescription paracetamol and ibuprofen (I know they should be returned to the pharmacy but they’d only have been destroyed and both are ex nurses so I guess they know what they’re doing). I’m not joking, there were boxes and boxes of the stuff, we didn’t buy painkillers for years and these will have cost the NHS a lot more than they would from the supermarket and weren’t even taken by the person that they were intended for! Surely paracetamol and ibuprofen should not be available on the NHS at all?

I really don’t want to bash the over 60s and it wouldn’t be a vote winner for politicians but surely we can’t afford to keep free prescriptions for those that can afford them?

This!!! 😂

You can if your gp emails your usual pharmacy. They'll even deliver it.

Yes, I have no idea why the age hasn't gone up. You'd have thought the tories would be all over it. My mum is now well above pension age. To be honest I suspect there are loads of unused benefits eg. Bus passes so I guess they are actually costing very little.

I think one of the problems here is that younger people don't understand one of the fundamental difficulties of being a pensioner. "How long does my money have to last?" If you age 30 or 40 get in financial difficulties, you can get a new job, re-train for a different career, perhaps are lucky enough to get an inheritance - you have the time and the opportunities to sort yourself out. These options are not available to those who are retired. Right now I get free prescriptions. I could easily afford to pay - assuming that I'm only going to live another 15 years. If I live another 30 years then I'm going to be truly stuffed.

@MysteriesOfTheOrganism but you can afford to pay so you should. I don't understand your logic? If and when you can't then of course you should get them free

Everyone in front of me was over 60 and collecting huge bags of medications and I was the only one paying for any of it.

So you'd prefer a race to the bottom, because you feel somebody else getting something "free" (it isn't - those old geezers paid/pay tax too) means you lose out?

One day, if you are lucky, you too will be over 60, & can benefit similarly.
If you don't want to wait, move to Wales, where prescriptions are free for everybody.

God. This thread is so depressing. It doesn't matter that one day everyone lucky enough to reach 60 will also get their prescriptions free, the point is if you don't need them to be paid for them it's a waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere! And I don't think wanting money to be spent where its actually needed is wanting a "race to the bottom" that's nonsense. Over 60s are way more likely to need A and E or inpatient care statistically than younger people. Wouldn't you rather that was available to you if you need it, so a better use of funds, than you being left in a corridor for days because the money has been spent on giving free prescriptions where they're not needed?

I’d like both please- free prescriptions at 60+ and not being left to die on a trolley in a hallway outside A&E. I don’t think that is unreasonable at all.

So how do we pay for that then? Tax the youngsters more? I mean most of them can't afford to buy a home anyway but fuck them, right?

This is a nutty idea but maybe we should close the loopholes that enable the highest rate of corporate tax dodging? (this article is 4yrs old, but it’s only gotten worse because Brexit was lobbied for specifically to avoid the EU regulations coming down that would have closed these loopholes)

”But an index published today by the Tax Justice Network found that the UK has “single-handedly” done the most to break down the global corporate tax system which loses an estimated $500bn (£395bn) to avoidance.
The amount dodged globally each year is more than three times the NHS budget or roughly equivalent to the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Belgium. Tax haven territories linked to Britain are responsible for around a third of the world’s corporate tax avoidance risk – more than four times the next greatest contributor, the Netherlands.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-corporate-tax-avoidance-havens-justice-network-dodging-a8933661.html

The government has a vested interest in making you think this is a rich old people vs poor young people issue. Divide and conquer. Scapegoat one demographic and watch the hate mongers take over.

No, equality of input doesn't equal equality of result. By that token, it would be the opposite of disability -ism to suggest everyone should use the same stairs.

You are talking about your very specific circumstances which doesn't mean it applies to everyone of your generation or younger generations. I'm not sure how old you are but students didn't have to “self-fund” their choices in the past as much as they do today. I was a student in the 80s and didn't have to pay tuition fees, received the full grant, and could claim income support even the summer holidays. Students today don't get anything apart from loans which they will have to pay back.

@Rainyrunway I don’t actually disagree. I only found out a couple of months ago that people over 60 in England didn’t have to pay. I had assumed that that benefit would start at state retirement age.

Perhaps tax the youngsters (and oldsters) who have a home and a holiday home on the side?

The questions surrounding us today are to do with the equitable distribution between rich and poor. But because more of young are poor and more of the old are relatively rich, rephrasing it as intergenerational unfairness conveniently moves the spotlight away from the rich.

And really it doesn't matter how hard things might have been for people years ago (well it does but not in relation to this discussion) just because you didn't get free childcare doesn't mean that you should get free prescriptions if you don't need them. The free childcare is minimal anyway and it's because childcare costs are astronomical (unlike a pre-pay prescription charge) so it's about trying to get parents back into work so they can pay more tax

I do agree @MereDintofPandiculation it shouldn't be about age, but ability to pay. Age is irrelevant.

and could claim income support even the summer holidays. Students today don't get anything apart from loans which they will have to pay back. Though of course a high proportion of students today wouldn’t even have had the chance of being a student in the 80s, still less in the 60s

18% of pensioners are in poverty but 31% of families with children are. YANBU OP.

Charges for those who can afford prescriptions to subsidise those who can't. All regardless of age but each according to their means.

Whilst I agree, a few million on free prescriptions is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the billions wasted by the NHS in so many other ways.

Well yes @taxguru but it's an easy place to start. And it doesn't have to cost anything to administer. Even if we left it up to the individual over 60 to sign or pay for their prescriptions depending on whether they were eligible, then assuming that most of that group are not going to commit fraud, it would still save the money

A good start would be equalising the tax people pay on the same level of income. It's absolutely insane that a worker earning £50k pays more "taxes" than a pensioner with an income of £50k or someone living off buy to lets earning £50k. The elephant in the room is NIC. Why is it only levied on wages, and not on other income such as occupational pensions, buy to let profits, dividend income, interest income, foreign income, etc. Makes no sense. Everyone earning, say, £50k needs to pay the same "taxes" regardless of where that income comes from!

YANBU.

It should be means tested, my grandad had a load of civil service pensions and had an absolute fortune coming in!

I don't disagree, but you also have to bear in mind that those eligible for free prescriptions due to medical conditions would need to keep applying for medical exemption which takes up NHS admin time, GP time, etc to process. At the moment, they become automatically exempt at the age of 60 thus saving that admin/GP time. You save in one area, but increase costs in another as many OAPs would be claiming medical exemption instead of age exemption.

Yes, it does seem a complete lack of joined up thinking within Govt ministries that they've been creeping up the state pension age but apparently didn't notice other "benefits" staying at 60!

The government has a vested interest in making you think this is a rich old people vs poor young people issue. Divide and conquer. Scapegoat one demographic and watch the hate mongers take over.
Exactly. Getting really sick of the casual cunty hatred of "boomers".