Published 1 July 2021
Last updated 15 June 2023 — See all updates
Aligning the upper age for
NHS prescription charge exemptions with the State Pension age:
government response
Detail of outcome
The consultation received over 117,000 responses, the majority of
which were opposed to a rise in the upper age exemption.
Some of the reasons given for opposing the change included cost
of living pressures and the risk to health of people not taking
prescribed medication correctly.
This government is committed to tackling cost of living pressures
and has decided that the prescription charge upper age exemption
will remain at 60, meaning that it will not align to the State
Pension age.
Original consultation Summary
This consultation is seeking views on changing the upper age of
age exemptions on prescription charges.
This consultation ran from
3pm on 1 July 2021 to 11:45am on 3 September
2021
Consultation description
Please be aware this consultation was originally published on 1
July 2021 but the online response form was updated at 5:15pm on
Thursday 8 July to include a question that was omitted in
error.
There have been no changes to the consultation document. Any
responses that had already been made will still be
considered.
The question that’s been added is “Do you think that aligning the
upper age exemption with state pension age could have a
differential impact on particular groups of people or
communities?”.
If you responded to the consultation before this question was
added but did not supply a contact email address, you can
submit a
response to this question, if you wish.
Individuals who did supply an email address have been contacted
directly to invite them to respond. You do not have to respond to
the whole consultation again.
The consultation has been extended to account for the changes and
allow sufficient time for consideration and will now close on 2
September.
The government is consulting on aligning the upper age exemption
for NHS prescription charges with the State Pension age (SPA). In
2019, around £600 million was generated in revenue from
prescription charges for frontline NHS services. Currently,
people receive free prescriptions when they turn 60 in England,
whereas the SPA is now 66.
The consultation is seeking views from the public and healthcare
professionals on options for change including building in a
period of protection so those aged between 60 to 65 can continue
to benefit from free prescriptions if the upper age exemption
rises.
See the easy read version of the
online survey.
Documents
Aligning the upper age for
NHS prescription charge exemptions with the State Pension
age
Impact assessment: increasing
the upper age exemption for prescription charges in line with the
state pension age
