Prescription Charges

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asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the eligibility requirements for gaining exemption from prescription charges; and which disabilities satisfy the requirements.

Exemption from prescription charges is available to people in the following categories. The list includes those medical conditions which confer entitlement to exemption.

1.Children under 16.

2.Men aged 65 or over and women aged 60 or over.

3.Pregnant women or women who have had a baby within the preceding 12 months.

4.people who get Supplementary Benefit, Family Income Supplement or Housing Benefit Supplement, their partners and dependants.

5.War or service pensioners (for items for their accepted disablement only).

6.People who qualify on low income grounds, their partners and dependants.

7.People who have—

(i) a permanent fistula (including caecostomy, colostomy, laryngostomy or ileostomy) requiring continuous surgical dressing or an applicance;

(ii) one of the following disorders for which specific substitution therapy is essential:

Addison's disease and other forms of hypoadrenalism,

diabetes insipidus and other forms of hypopituitarism,

diabetes mellitus,

hypoparathyroidism,

myasthenia gravis,

myxoedema;

(iii) epilepsy requiring continuous anti-convulsive therapy;

(iv) a continuing physical disability which prevents the patient from leaving his residence without the help of another person.

Volume 80: debated on Tuesday 11 June 1985