Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether NHS charges claim forms include a box for universal credit.
Alistair Burt
Some NHS Help with Health Costs claim forms, for example HC5 refund claim forms, have been amended to include a specific tick box to enable Universal Credit recipients to claim entitlement.
Form HC1 (NHS Low Income Scheme application form) has been amended to include a sentence about Universal Credit, to advise those applying that until 31 October 2015, anyone in receipt of Universal Credit does not need to complete the form, as they will already be entitled to Help with Health Costs.
Other forms, including: NHS prescription forms (FP10); dental treatment claim forms (FP17) and claims for NHS funded sight tests (GOS 1) and for vouchers for glasses or contact lenses (GOS 3) will be amended to include a Universal Credit box in due course.
A patient can make a claim for entitlement by ticking the “gets income based Jobseekers Allowance” on relevant forms. Guidance for both the public and healthcare practitioners (such as pharmacists, dentist and opticians) has been included on NHS Choices with links from the Universal Credit webpages on Gov.uk.
