What is a fair penalty for this?

[UKSBD]

Woman picks up 5 prescriptions on 20th September, 20th October, 20th November

2nd week in December she receives a letter saying her pre-paid prescription expired on 15th September.

What would you say is a fair penalty for making this mistake?

 

[Mark T Jones]

TBH I don't understand the question, but I imagine context would play a big part...

 

[pentel]

You can see the charges here: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/understanding-penalty-charges

If you renew a certificate I think you can ask for it to be backdated by a month

 

[UKSBD]

You can see the charges here: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/understanding-penalty-charges

If you renew a certificate I think you can ask for it to be backdated by a month

Yes but do you know how much that is, and do you think that is fair?

 

[UKSBD]

TBH I don't understand the question, but I imagine context would play a big part...

A prepaid prescription is about £10 a month so she should have paid about £30 for the period from when certificate expired to when it was renewed.

In that time she picked up 15 prescriptions

The question was - what do you think would be a fair penalty for this mistake?

 

[pentel]

Did she receive a renewal notice?

These are usually sent out 1 month before the end of the period? It can also be set it up for it to auto renew by Direct Debit.

 

[UKSBD]

Did she receive a renewal notice?

These are usually sent out 1 month before the end of the period? It can also be set it up for it to auto renew by Direct Debit.

No, not really relevant though, I'm not querying whether a penalty is due.

I would just like to hear what people think is a fair penalty. and what they think the penalty could be.

 

[MikeJ]

Since her pre-paid system wasn't in place, then the cost of the prescriptions. £9.90 x 15.

 

[fisicx]

Agree with @MikeJ - the penalty should be the full cost of the prescriptions.

There is no excuse for letting a certificate expire, you get notified that it’s running out.

 

[UKSBD]

Since her pre-paid system wasn't in place, then the cost of the prescriptions. £9.90 x 15.

£148.50 Yeah, that sounds fair.

What the actual penalty is = £891.00

 

[MikeJ]

Are they arguing she's committed fraud or theft?

 

[UKSBD]

Are they arguing she's committed fraud or theft?

No idea, they aren't classed as fines - they are Penalty Charge Notices
ie. you agree to pay it when taking out the certificate.

Similar to parking charges.

 

[pentel]

Agree with @MikeJ - the penalty should be the full cost of the prescriptions

Unfortunately if the penalty is the price of the prescriptions not paid for there would be no incentive to pay when the prescription is dispensed.

The charge can be as much as 10 x the prescriptions not paid for.

I think that for situations where deliberate false claims are made this is not unreasonable, however for the situation the OP has described it is rather excessive.