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?

I wanted to return to work after having my children in the early 1990s and struggled to find any childcare to allow me to start work at 8am.

Only if you lived in 11 plus areas.
I didnt
I did O levels. Never did the 11plus

But education didn't end at O Level/CSE. I went to a comp just after the grammars in our area were scrapped. I was a straight A pupil so almost certainly would have gone to the grammar. Instead I went to the same school, but as a comp. I left aged 16 without a single CSE nor O level because the school turned into a hell hole failure almost overnight and my grades dropped by a grade each year due to bullying, abuse, and a complete lack of interest from the teachers. But I picked myself up and self-studied along with evening classes first did my O levels, then A levels, and then started down the chartered accountancy route, and eventually qualified around aged 25! It was hard but not impossible. If I could do that, why couldn't those who didn't get into grammars - the door was open for further education from aged 16 especially if they'd done well at their CSEs as a lot of college of FE O level courses were just 1 year, so they could have got back "on track" by doing an extra year at college, and then moved onto A levels and Uni!

It's not contempt for individuals though, and absolutely it wasn't all sunshine and roses but things are shitter for young people nowadays in many ways. Social mobility may not have been as good back then, but people with regular working class jobs could afford to buy houses (I know not everyone could, my parents didn't) which are now worth astronomical amounts compared to what they paid even taking into account the changing value of money etc. Might not have been as many foreign holidays but UK holidays were affordable to many, things will most certainly be worse for millennials onwards when they're old than it is for pensioners now- I think being a bit miffed at a generation that pulled the ladder up behind them and now are taking way more out of the system than they had to pay in is annoying.

RosesAndHellebores · Today 18:59
What really saddens me about this thread is the contempt younger people hold for the generation that comprises their parents.

See it's funny but I see more contempt from the older generation towards the youngsters. It's all "I've paid my dues now it's my turn" except on the whole you haven't (as a generation) paid your dues so now the youngsters are having to pick up the tab knowing there's going to be nothing left for them.

Wake up folks and stop blaming each other. Governments make all the decisions, and always have. They, and not the people, old, young or in between, are the reason why things are as they are.

We have had some crap governments, but recent ones have played a blinder, delibetately pitting the generations against each other so that they blame each other for all that is wrong in the country today. All to stop us plebs from turning on them, the real self-serving, grabbing bds!

I can't speak for all secondary moderns but certainly in my area some people did O levels and could transfer to a grammar to do a levels.

Please explain how 60yr olds have not paid their dues.
Those who work pay….

@Titusgroan I honestly can't even be bothered to get into it. Anyone who has looked into anything will see that the baby boomers have bled the system dry, and continue to do so.

Boomer couples on lowish pay often worked different hours because there was no childcare. We had no family within a day’s journey, so I did temp clerical work, DH looked after the children when he wasn’t working away. Early 70s. Friends whose husbands worked days, took part time evening work in pubs or chippies. Not luxury living.

But what we did see was opportunities for our children! Generation X could go to university, because we were more aware than our parents had been. The ‘know your place’ attitude was disappearing. Lots of Gen X have surpassed their boomer parents. That makes me very happy.

Ok
Thought not.

I totally agree, everyone up to their actual retirement age should pay -and that should be means tested. The pre payment cert must be publicised so everyone who could benefit from one would have one.

I don't believe in free prescriptions at all, in any part of the UK - it does not make economic sense. I say this as someone who is 'incandescent with rage' that I will get free prescriptions even though I can afford the monthly pre payment fee! It just encourages wasteful behaviour.

@Titusgroan I think my 25 year old son summarised how annoyed he felt about a relative who used to go on about the 'we've worked hard all our lives' thing. Which was repeated often- This was a Daily mail reading woman in her late 60s who had never done more than 10 hours a week paid work (and that was sporadic) since she was mid 20's and she is by no means unique amongst women over 65. I'm 61 myself but never had that luxury!! I am not annoyed by the fact she had done little work , but I am annoyed that there was always this use of 'we' -when it wasn't the case.

But you’re not forced to take the offer of free prescriptions.
You can pay if you want to.

No I quite agree.

Not everyone pays into the system the same amount and some never pay a penny.

As it was in the past, is now and always will be…….

I find this thread very sad, I honestly had absolutely no idea that young and younger people resented the elderly (like me), for getting some things cheap or free. Presumably that includes their parents or older relatives. I still had very elderly relatives up until 2004 and was delighted that they were able to live a relatively comfortable life, not having to worry too much about money.

From what I see most pensioners help their children financially if they can afford to, they also give to others discreetly, often do some voluntary work and many still pay tax! You don't have to have a huge income to pay tax, working people on low salaries have to pay it and it's the same for pensioners. I have to do my tax returns each year and pay something; I am not 'rich', just ordinary (not complaining).

I also do not have any prescriptions, never mind free ones, and the only benefit I receive is the winter fuel allowance. I've heard people say that they don't need that and give it away, either to someone who does or a worthy cause. However some really do need it, there are plenty of elderly people who find it difficult to make ends meet. Be glad there is a safety net for your elderly relatives, there was a time when their younger children had to support them (which still happens in other countries).

'Free prescriptions' is a relatively small issue in the scheme of things when you consider the cost of residential care for the elderly. That soon swallows up any nest egg or property unless the person is fabulously wealthy. Care in the home is also expensive, that was free for a while for anyone who needed it up until about 2010 - not that many years ago.

This government fleeces everyone and neglects the most vulnerable in society. It was the same under Thatcher.

Don't blame old people, blame the government which, in recent years, has comprised incompetent, uncaring individuals who appear to be totally out of touch with the general public. That can be put right, it will take time but is possible.

I think the point that some people are failing to grasp here is that taxpayer funded benefits are not supposed to be a reward for having paid into the system. They're supposed to be a safety net for people in need.

It's not right that wealthy older people who can afford to pay for their own prescriptions are getting them for free when younger people on low incomes who can't afford it are having to pay for their prescriptions or go without.

It should be means tested so that the budget for financial help with prescriptions is directed towards those who need it the most.

That's interesting. When and where? I thought that during O-level time, 11plus was universal. Though thinking about it, comprehensives were coming in in the late 60s/early 70s, and that was pre-GCSE.

It should be means tested so that the budget for financial help with prescriptions is directed towards those who need it the most. Even if the cost of the means testing means that the budget is reduced?

things will most certainly be worse for millennials onwards when they're old than it is for pensioners now. There shouldn't be quite so many trying to manage on state pension alone now there's automatic enrolment into work place pensions.

Boomers didn't "deliberately bleed the country dry". We were optimistic then. The expectation was that more people would be able to retire early in the generations after us, that working hours would continue to reduce, that social mobility would increase, and so on. What in fact happened was the increase in social mobility stalled, then went into reverse, and money started flowing upwards to the few.

All this arguing between generations is obscuring that the real unfairness is between the top few percent and the rest.

I'm not arguing between generations, I don't blame anyone else or think they're personally responsible for anything, but I think there's a bit of faux naievity when people claim they don't see why there might be people who feel it's unfair, because it is.

There shouldn't be quite so many trying to manage on state pension alone now there's automatic enrolment into work place pensions.

I mean this is an example of unfairness. We pay now out of our taxes for state pensions yet it's vanishingly unlikely we will ever have one, we have been paying out of our wages for ours in addition to taxes. Before when people paid towards those who had retired it was on the understanding that one day they'd have a state pension; now we don't have that guarantee, far from it. Retirement age is likely to rise anyway so goodness knows what age we will be working until. Even the 'gold plated' public sector pensions aren't as good as they once were.

Well the answer to that is that the NHS needs to be more effective in its IT procurement. I don't believe it can actually be that hard to work out who is rich and who is poor.

But if that's really not possible then subsidise it for everyone so older people are paying a contribution and everyone else is paying a bit less.

We pay now out of our taxes for state pensions yet it's vanishingly unlikely we will ever have one Why do you say that? There's no indication that ther's any plan to abolish the state pension. And when they had an opportunity to abolish it gradually, by freezing the state pension and just raising the pension credit limit, they went the other way, and gave a big state pension increase to younger pensioners.

I'm not sure what year it became law to have work place pensions, but I'd bet whenever it came in when those people start to retire it'll be gone bar benefits continuing for those who claim them and haven't worked to get a workplace pension.