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?

Xenia, can you explain what is wise about financing the higher education system with personal debt which just gets written off after 30 years of compound interest at the taxpayer's expense because nobody can afford to pay it off?

It might be wise from the selfish point of view of someone who is already 60, in the sense that it will be the next generation of taxpayers who have to foot the bill, rather than them. But wise at a societal level? Not so much.

What will be interesting is seeing whether millennials follow the same pattern. The oldest are now over 40 and I’m a middle so not there yet. I don’t know anyone in this age group who is becoming more right wing, probably because we’re not getting more money. If anything we’re all getting more left wing because we’ve been shit on for so long.

There will be some Tory millennials but part of me wonders if they’re the ones in families that have money, and want to hold onto it.

It’ll be interesting to see what impact that has going forward.

@fitzwilliamdarcy yea that will be interesting. On a personal note I'm one of the older millennilials and I don't think anyone in my circle is becoming more right wing but then it's hard to say whether that's because most don't really have much to protect in the way of assets or whether it's because we're in London, in generally quite a labour area

I'm not becoming more right wing but I am becoming less likely to vote at all.

I can't in all good conscience vote for any of the major parties at the moment.

To say nothing of the government selling off thousands of the loans. Mine's Plan 1, so I'd have been a potential payer near enough until retirement, but they flogged it a few years back. At the time I had two young DC and because of a couple of statutory only maternity leaves, some unpaid parental leave blocs and the way they fell across the tax years, I'd been under the threshold for a few years. Can't have been particularly uncommon for women of my age.

If I'd been contacted, I'd have explained that this was going to be a period of very low income for me but that I expected my earnings to soon increase. Instead, flogged off. Probably to some dodgy outfit owned by a Tory donor. Very short term thinking.

In terms of whether millennials will move rightwards as we age, early indications suggest not. John Burn-Murdoch had some good data at the end of last year. But it's early days, as the youngest of the cohort are still a way off 30.

Perhaps there could be an extension for people caring for grandchildren. Perhaps just issue them with food vouchers until childcare is no longer needed.

I have never been aware that I am bleeding anything dry. In the early 70's, ex DH and I worked - me days, him nights. No childcare vouchers for us.

I do, though, remember campaigning for more rights, better wages, and better career prospects for women.

I have always lived in social housing. No benefits claimed, and no mortgage free house for me now. I pay full rent because of my pensions.

Ingelp my adult kids, and I help my adult grandkids. They all work as well.

But, it's pointless arguing. This generation think they invented poverty and hardship.🙄

I'm a boomer and I've never voted Tory. But, many younger people are too bone idle to vote, older people tend to always vote - so guess who gets in?

If everyone voted, the result might be different. Moaning on social media changes nothing.🙄

I agree. If you have the funds to pay for them or at least the annual pre payment certificate then you should pay.

Hi
Youve tagged me in
Not sure if you thought I was the MN talking about bleeding the system dry.
It certainly wasn’t me

@RosesAndHellebores
The resentment and ill placed envy, whingeing and jealousy on this thread is horrendous. But of course older people in this country have had so many more privileges than the generations behind them. Not

I'm 60, financially, i ve had a very privileged life, access to a great NHS, free Uni/FE education, FS pension, very cheap housing, both rental and to purchase, my first house (and only house) was 86k, three times my then earnings, sold for 450k, totally unaffordable to anyone without property to sell and a very good salary.

My DD will be fine but many younger people and indeed older people didn't have these things or weren't in a position to take adv of them.

Its quite frankly astounding you cannot recognise the wealth inequality in this country.

@Zebedee55 No one thinks poverty was invented just for them but you had & have Social housing i.e council housing cheap rents, when you were working, enabled you to pay into a pension scheme & plus had you wished, you could have bought a house.

You also have security of tenure, no section 21 notice for you... unlike anyone in the private rented sector.

Its quite frankly astounding you cannot recognise the wealth inequality in this country. Wealth inequality is not the same as generational inequality. The wealth inequality is greater than the generational inequality.

I'm struggling to follow your argument here. I'm not blaming anyone for taking on a debt, and whilst yes, I'd expect most people to consider the future when voting, are you saying that you voted for younger people's welfare, but older people don't? You are the older person in this scenario. And under 18s not voting is not relevant either, unless I'm missing the point altogether.

Yes, we all pay taxes (including pensioners) and some of them go to 'pay for' both older and younger people - it's called 'society'. In my time I have 'paid for' older people's pensions, for children and young people to be educated, for housing benefit and social housing, for benefits and cruise missiles and the police, and the war in Iraq and countless other things - some have (or will) benefit me and others haven't and won't. It's the same for everyone.

I'm not sure what people voting Tory has to do with me either - I'm a member of the Labour Party and have been all my adult life. I don't think there should be student debt, and have marched against it, but my taxes still pay for it.

im taking every freebie offered to me at the appropriate ages. Been working since 18 and won’t retire until I’m in the ground.

@MargotBamborough Im not impressed with any of them either. Couple that with the fact i dont have a passport or drivers licence because i have no need of either so dont have photo ID.

Im not interested in getting photo ID another way either. Its Just Another Chore another thing ive got to piss about doing? NO i have enough shit to do.

I think you are missing the point, yeah.

The vast majority of young people who voted for the Lib Dems in 2010 for their pledge to abolish tuition fees would not have benefited from that policy themselves because they had already paid their fees and in many cases graduated. They were voting for something that would benefit people younger than themselves, not themselves particularly.

Most people do not vote in the interests of younger people, they vote in their own interests. This is why higher education gets screwed over and over and over again. Because the people who vote in every government have no skin in the game.

I feel sick to the stomach that I voted for the Lib Dems on the back of that policy, and as a consequence enabled them to form a coalition with the Tories, when they voted to treble tuition fees only a couple of months after the election. And what for? For a referendum on a shitty alterative voting system which wasn't what people were asking for anyway, which they royally ballsed up.

I think it's a problem that so many young people don't vote, but it's not remotely surprising. And I will soon be joining their ranks myself, because none of the parties deserve my vote.

Weasellyrecognised
I am one of the folk in their sixties with a decent car who collects prescriptions quite regularly for a condition I have. I would be only too happy to pay for my medication if it meant others might have theirs free if they can't afford it. I know that sounds smug and virtue signalling perhaps but it's true. It's just practical in my view - if I can pay and others can't, why on earth shouldn't I pay?

But you are not forced to not pay.
Just don’t sign the back of the prescription and pay.

If you did this then the pharmacy would be committing fraud. The money would not go into the NHS pot as it's automatically put through as an exempt script if over 60 so no charge is collected from the pharmacy.

I think you've been getting a hard time here OP. Unfortunately it's not going to be sustainable to keep free prescriptions for over 60's as that population grows larger. When the exemptions were first made, the life expectancy was a lot lower and also people weren't on so many drugs as they are now. It's inevitable that it will creep up to 65 soon.

You could get a postal vote. No id needed. And once you've signed up, you carry on getting a postal vote until you tell them to stop, so it's not even much effort.

So fed up of the bashing of older people on this forum. I have worked hard since I was 17, never taken any benefits and have had no inheritance etc. I help out my children in any way I can and am still working as an early years teacher at the age of 62 . I'm getting one repeat prescription free every 2 months. I haven't been to the doctor in 4 years so cost the NHS less than most of the younger generations. What do all you Gen. Whatever people want to do, I work as hard as you do and am still paying as much or more tax. You should look ahead to your futures, and fight to protect benefits etc. for older citizens it will be you soon. At least the young people in France realise that.

I really haven't seen any more "bashing" of older people on this thread than I have of younger ones but the entire point of the thread is why should you now get free prescriptions regardless of whether you can afford to pay just because you're over 60? Is your reasoning because you haven't taken much else out? That really shouldn't be the way it works.

@Rainyrunway the whole point of the thread is based on a person’s age - hence the accusation of over-60’s-bashing!
Whilst I (and I’m sure many other people over the age of 60) don’t mind receiving the benefit, especially since we have often not taken much out of the “system” during our 40+ years of paying into it, we have also been able to see how the NHS and successive governments have often spent, wildly and irresponsibly, the money that we have put in. Some examples:

Prescribing over-the-counter remedies to people who don’t pay for prescriptions (including paracetamol, aspirin Etc. - both of which can be purchased for less than 50p in supermarkets - the cost of providing the prescription runs to many times the cost of the medication).

Performing life-saving, and extremely costly, treatment to people visiting from other countries - wonderful, and totally understandable, but then refusing to invoke the necessary administrative processes to recoup the cost from the appropriate insurance bodies/governments because there is either no coherent process to follow or the NHS staff are unwilling to take it on? Totally irresponsible behaviour and completely overlooked by the Government.

Despite being an enormous organisation, failing to procure essential supplies at a reasonable cost, instead being willing to pay full retail price for many medical supplies. No successful business worth it’s salt would pay over the odds for supplies.

Over-prescribing costly medical supplies such as incontinence pants, drainage bottles and bags to patients at end-of-life stage (if someone has weeks to live, why prescribe months of supplies?) This has happened with three family members, causing at least a £3000.00 loss to the NHS).

Unwillingness to enable return and re-use of said medical supplies such as temporary medical aids like crutches, and unopened, still-sealed medical aids as described above.

Whilst I agree that those under-60’s who are struggling with their COL could see it as unfair, based on the fact that some over-60’s seem to have more than them(!) - although I’m sure that there are some under-60’s who also have more than them - they are directing their anger at the wrong group.

The NHS should be able to clean up its own administrative and bureaucratic/Byzantine processes, given that the majority of the staff they employ are Admin, not medical, and run a much tighter ship - that way, everyone could get free prescriptions! Rail at the cause, not the over-60’s!

The whole thread is about removing something only from over 60s. Not 'let's make everyone who can afford it pay for GP appointments or a&e visits' etc.

But the point is the benefit is based solely on age. So it's not a bashing over 60s thread it's just that over 60s are the ones that get the benefit. No matter whether they need it or not. Would you think it right if everyone from say age 35 to age 40 were to get free prescriptions, based solely on their age whether they need that financial help or not? It's the same thing! And it's not even inline with retirement age.
And yes children get free prescriptions but children don't have access to their own money, they rely on the adults around them, as does a fetus, hence why pregnant women or kids getting free prescriptions makes sense. Although I wouldn't have a problem with women going back to paying (if they do anyway) after the birth.

There are also many medicines for illnesses within the category of free prescriptions

Hypothyroidism
Cancer
epilepsy
certain diabetes
myasthenia gravis
hypoadrenalism eg Addisons
colostomy bag wearers and similar
anything regarded as past effects of cancer
and so on