Removal of Tax Credits from April 5th 2025, how will this affect community pharmacies?
People currently receiving tax credits from HMRC will no longer get this payment after Saturday 5th April 2025. This means patients who hold a tax credit exemption certificate will no longer receive automatic entitlement to free NHS prescriptions. These patients will be moved to Universal Credit (UC).
The FP10 form will be updated to remove reference to the tax credit exemption certificate.
To continue being entitled to free NHS prescriptions, patients must meet the Universal Credit criteria for help with health costs as not everyone on UC is entitled to free prescriptions.
If your pharmacy is enabled with Real Time Exemption Checking, use it to find out if a patient has a valid exemption before dispensing their prescription. If not, the patient will need to tick box U and show their UC award notice or pay and be given an FP57 receipt so that they can claim a refund if they discover they are eligible for one.