- Conference
- 2022 National Retired Members Conference
- Date
- 17 May 2022
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes that the Government is still considering raising the age of free prescriptions in England from 60 to 66, in line with the increasing State Pension age. The changes would mean that as many as 2.4 million people aged 60 to 65 would have to start paying for antibiotics, illness treatments and more at the pharmacy counter. Many of these fear that they may face charges with little warning if the changes go ahead.
Conference further notes that a petition to continue to give free prescriptions to over 60s was signed by more than 46,000 people and resulted in the Department of Health and Social Security responding with a statement explaining its position.
The statement said “At this time, no decision has yet been taken on the consultation. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is considering the results carefully and an announcement setting out the Government’s response and course of action will be made in due course”.
Conference believes that the proposed change is extremely ill-judged because the money the Government would save by scrapping free prescriptions for 60-65 year olds would almost certainly be outweighed by the additional costs to the NHS if people fail to take their medication because they can’t afford it and become ill.
Conference further believes that UNISON retired members must remain vigilant with regard to any attempt to increase the qualifying age for free prescriptions to over 65.
Therefore, Conference calls on the National Retired Members’ Committee to:
1)Work with the NEC, Health Service Group Executive and Labour Link to oppose in the strongest terms any attempt to raise the qualifying age for free prescriptions to over 65;
2. Raise awareness of the issue amongst retired members and encourage them to lobby their MPs on the need to maintain free prescriptions for the over 60s.