2. Who is eligible
You are exempt from NHS charges if:
1Regs 3-5 NHS(TERC) Regs; regs 3-5 NHS(TERC)(W) Regs•you or a member of your family receive income support (IS), income-based jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), income-related employment and support allowance (ESA) or the guarantee credit of pension credit (PC);
•in England and Wales, you or a member of your family receive universal credit (UC) and either have no earnings or your earnings are no more than £435 a month (£935 if you have a child or a limited capability for work or limited capability for work-related activity element included in your UC);
•you or a member of your family receive:
◦child tax credit (CTC); or
◦CTC and working tax credit (WTC); or
◦WTC including a disabled worker or severe disability element.
To be exempt because you receive tax credits, your gross annual income must be £15,276 or less a year.
There are other categories of people who are exempt from NHS charges – eg, if you are a permanent resident in a care home, a hospital inpatient, an asylum seeker (see
here), aged 16 or 17 and being financially maintained by a local authority, a war disablement pensioner and you need the item or service because of your war disability, or if you are in prison or a young offenders’ institution.
You may also be exempt from some charges because of your age or a specific health condition – see the individual types of charges on
here–
here.
If you are not exempt on any of the grounds listed above or below, you may be entitled to a full or partial remission of charges on grounds of low income - this includes if you are claiming UC in Northern Ireland (see
here).