Dear Listener

In the Pre Budget Report on 9 December it was quietly announced that the qualifying age for free prescriptions – in England – would rise from 60 to the state pension age for women. That age is slowly rising from 6 April so that, for example, a woman born on 20 July 1950 will not reach state pension age on her 60th birthday but will have to wait until 6 November 2010 when she is a Sue Townsendian sixty and a quarter.

She will also have to wait until that age to get free prescriptions (in England; they are already free for everyone in Wales and will be in Northern Ireland from April. In Scotland the age is not changing this year and they will be free for all from April 2011). The qualifying age will also rise for men (in England). So although men may feel rising state pension age is not yet an issue for them, in England it soon will be. The qualifying age for free prescriptions and free bus travel (again England only) is rising for them along with the state pension age for women.

I mention all this – which is old news to attentive listeners (see Money Box 11 December 2009) – because I have been getting emails from people responding to my saying that the qualifying age for free prescriptions will rise in England from April. These correspondents have been saying “Oh no it won’t” and adding “I checked with the local NHS/doctor/chemist etc and they say you’re wrong.”

So I checked again. And guess what? It is not just local NHS staff who are unaware. Confusion reigns at the heart of Government. The Treasury assured me the change in the qualifying age would happen. Of course it did – the change was announced in the big book of policy changes published as part of the Pre-Budget statement on 9 December (paragraph 5.45 if you’re interested). But forty-eight hours after I first asked, the Department of Health was unable even to confirm that the change in the qualifying age would happen still less to let me know whether, when or how NHS staff in England had been informed.

So two months before the first change (in England) to the qualifying age for free prescriptions for 15 years (when the qualifying age for men was reduced throughout the UK to 60) the English NHS may still be blissfully ignorant of it.

So if your 60th birthday falls after 5 April this year and your chemist or doctor or hospital or neighbour or the woman in the corner shop says you will get free NHS prescriptions from that happy day (and you live in England) – do not believe them. Check the real date here pensions.direct.gov.uk/en/state-pension-age-calculator/home.asp and put your gender as ‘female’.

IN MONEY BOX THIS WEEK

Tax codes are cracking even more this week. After last week’s story about thousands, hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of them being wrong, over one hundred of you emailed us with your tax code story. Including some who work for HMRC and know the true horror of the new computer system. We will reveal the awful truth this week.

If you have not heard of Arch Cru count yourself lucky. Those who have probably invested a lot of their money in it and now find their funds are frozen and they will be lucky to get back much more than half over the next three to five years. How did the system fail us so comprehensively?

If you prefer cash savings to investments then you may be very interested in the ‘save our savers’ campaign which wants….well you’ll hear. And also the ex-Bank of England employee who says if you do have savings and you rely on the income they generate be very careful how much of your interest you treat as income – a lot of it just keeps your capital up with inflation.

And the cliff edge which looms at midnight between 5 and 6 April. Born on one side of it sixty or sixty-five years ago and you are showered with advantages, born the other and you are stuck with past iniquities.

That’s our four items (or should I say ‘those are’) but hands are already going up to fill a fifth spot. Mmmm. We’ll see. Find out what makes it – and what doesn’t – by listening to our allotted 24 minutes from 1204 on Saturday, or 2102 on Sunday, or on the website www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox at any time. There you can also read stuff, watch videos, follow up items, download transcripts and documents, subscribe to our podcast – 117,000 of you did that in December – and send us stories or ideas you want us to look into. And of course Have Your Say on – to be announced.

Best wishes,

Paul

PS Don’t forget the programme preview on Breakfast BBC 1 soon after 0845 on Saturday.

e-mail Paul Lewis