Due to the recent industrial action by Royal Mail staff, PPCs may take longer than normal to arrive. Please accept our apologies for any delay. We are operating as normally as possible during this period and are trying to keep delays to a minimum.
If you need to pay NHS charges while you wait for a PPC to arrive, please ask for a receipt (FP57) so you can claim a refund later.
Note: You must be resident in England to purchase a PPC from us. 128 Encryption is required for our on-line applications (for more details read the PPC Application Process.
Important - some people can get free prescriptions on age, income or medical grounds.
Check whether you can get free prescriptions before buying a PPC. See the other pages in the Help with Health Costs area for further information.
If you have to pay for more than 3 prescription items in 3 months, or 14 items in 12 months, you could save money with a Prescription Prepayment certificate (PPC).
The charge for a single prescription item is £7.20, whereas a 3-month PPC will cost you £28.25 and a 12-month PPC £104.00. The most convenient way to pay for your 12 month PPC is by Direct Debit meaning you can spread the yearly cost evenly over 10 monthly instalments.
Once your Direct Debit is set up, we will send you an advance notice letter showing the amount we will debit from your bank account each month. We will then collect that amount without you having to do a thing. You cannot choose the date of the month that your first instalment will be collected, but the date of the month can be changed once the first instalment is paid. Every effort is made to ensure that your certificate is dispatched within 7 days of your first instalment being paid. We are responsible for issuing PPCs to people resident in England only, on behalf of the Department of Health.
About the Prescription Prepayment Certificate
A PPC covers you for all of your own NHS prescriptions, no matter how may items you need.
Renewals
We send reminder letters out to patients whose PPCs are due to expire. But remember to apply for your new PPC in good time, otherwise you will have to pay charges when your old PPC runs out.
Before your PPC arrives
If you have to pay a prescription charge while you are waiting for your PPC, you may get a refund, as long as you have an NHS receipt, form FP57. The pharmacist or dispensing doctor can only issue an FP57 at the time you pay for a prescription charge - they cannot give you one later. You can claim the prescription charge(s) back up to 3 months after paying. The FP57 tells you what to do. But remember the PPC itself can only be backdated by one month.