Akinika - NHS

[enaid]

Re: Akinika - NHS

We know now about ESA and tbh it is still very confusing many professionals don't know the rules, OH didn't know till this week he thought and has been told that all ESA makes charges exempt, if he had not been 65 he would have ticked prescription box too and that would have cost a fortune with the amount of meds hes on.

No I didn't tell the dentist we had moved but didn't know this until last week. As we pay after treatment is finished at the surgery and they do not mail appointment reminders anymore I wouldn't expect post from them so had no reason to think I hadn't told them. It is nearly 3 yrs ago we moved.

I'll go as far as I can with this and will even give up on the 5x cost penalty charge but I will not pay the 50% added for not paying withing 28 days as only for the first time got any idea about this till Wednesday this week.

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

[enaid]

Re: Akinika - NHS

So they must access data from DWP as to the exact benefit people are claiming, probably using Nat Ins no and NHS no to confirm they have the right person. It must have been too much for them to also check up to date address details which are correct at DWP and all other NHS services.

What will happen if I do not reply?If you do not reply it will appear that you are not at the address we hold for you. We will send an enquiryto the GP practice to check whether they have a more up to date address or whether you are stillattending. The GP practice has 6 months in which to respond to our enquiry. If no up-to-date address isavailable and the GP practice are not able to contact you, then at the end of this time you will beremoved from your GP practice list of patients. This will mean that you will need to re-register if yourequire an appointment or prescription.

https://www.sbs.nhs.uk/sbs/assets/nel/FAQ.pdf

Welfare officers and CAB also discussing this

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/9094/


Written Question asked by Sir Bob Russell - Colchester - 2015

The National Health Service (Penalty Charge) Regulations 1999 set out that where a person fails to pay a NHS charge which they are liable to pay, they may be issued with a penalty notice. The penalty charge is a civil fine – it is five times the amount a person should have paid, up to £100. This is on top of the original prescription charge, currently £8.05 per item. Where a person fails to pay the penalty charge within a period of 28 days, the penalty charge will be increased by 50%.

The NHS Act 2006 (section 194) allows for a fine of up to £2,500 (level 4 on the standard scale, Criminal Justice Act 1982) for those found guilty of knowingly making a false claim to exemption from prescription charges.

A person who wishes to challenge the request for payment of a penalty charge by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), may explain their circumstances to the NHSBSA and if they can demonstrate to the NHSBSA’s satisfaction that they did not act wrongfully, or with any lack of care, they will not be subject to a penalty charge. The NHSBSA also has discretion to waive the penalty charge where the person concerned provides compelling reasons for making an incorrect claim for exception. A person who is not satisfied with the handling of their case may use the NHS complaints process to make a complaint against the NHSBSA. Ultimately, this can be escalated to the Health ServiceOmbudsman


http://bhamsouthcentralccg.nhs.uk/publications/counter-fraud-documents/941-dont-just-help-yourself-leaflet/file

[Jordibird]

Re: Akinika - NHS

Your not alone with this either, my OH is in the exact same situation and is now receiving letters from akinka. He was advised by the dental receptionist that the treatment was free when he went to an appointment and took details of the meds he was on after suffering a heart attack. He only took them in because the hospital told him he had to inform the dentist in case of any medical conflict with his treatment. When he passed the info over the receptionist asked him if he was on the sick and getting any benefits and he said ESA, she then actually ticked the exemption box and put a x where he had to sign saying treatment was free. That was the start of it, we appealed even quoting the relevant legislation and providing copies of the exemption form but they would not accept that it was the dental staff at fault. They did as an act of good will deduct £50 off the £150 charge. We appealed again and heard nothing until akinka letters arrived demanding £201.30.
My OH knows nothing about the different types of ESA I however do but the daft sausage didn't tell me until the demand and charges leters arrived.
The NHS appeal system is a joke muddled in repealed legislation and numerous secondary legislation. The dental providers will always be backed even when wrong, they must be making a shed load out of this at the expense of us workers.
Anyway just wanted to say that your not alone in what has happened and we have not paid akinka or acknowledged any debt. Just getting my second wind back to take the toerags on.

[enaid]

Re: Akinika - NHS

Have started the complaints procedure awaiting a response, then next stage CEO.
This has been very well planned IMHO as there are thousands been caught out, I know not everyone will be genuine and will tick the box and take a chance but certainly not all and certainly not in my OHs case. My daughter with learning difficulties has recently been put on ESA so up to now we have had 4 letters about ESA (2 for OH and 2 for her) there is no information re entitlements on any of the letters nor was there any info put in with the letter as stated by the DWP. The letters are, bar figures and perhaps 2 or 3 words identical and very confusing.
A nice little earner for the struggling NHS.
Good luck with this and please if you can let me know how you get on as will I.

[enaid]

Re: Akinika - NHS

Unfortunately, this is the standard advice from many CAB advisors and when i used to actually work for the NHSBSA Debt Recovery Team in Eastbourne i used to "bat away" such appeals all day long without breaking sweat. And i might add i hated every minute having to do it.

The NHSBSA will not review the debt recovery on the principle of any underlying entitlement. At the time the incorrect claim was made the patient must be in receipt of a qualifying benefit. If this lady now succesfully applies for an HC2 certificate it will not be backdated to cover the dates of the treatment. It does not matter whether in all possibility she would have been entitled had she claimed at the time. The NHSBSA has a very poor letter that goes on about the HC1 form assessment being a "snap shot in time scenario" that we used to occasionally dig out.

The tragedy is that the original framework document that advised on how the NHS Penalty Charges process should be run DOES specifically suggest that consideration should be given to "underlying entitlement". However, the NHSBSA manager who was responsible for the application of the process chose to ignore it. I could not comment as to whether he was advised by senior NHSBSA management in Newcastle.

This lady has been advised on another internet forum as to the best approach to see if the £100 penalty charge can be removed. This is is based on getting a GP letter to confirm that she has Mental Health issues that would have directly effected her ability to understand her benefits and/or undestand the PR form declaration she signed at the surgery. This will then address the "lack of care" issue which can be used to review a penalty charge.

The NHSBSA statement about a "legal obligation on the surgery to request evidence" is a bit of a nonsense. There are no routine checks on whether all NHS dentists are regularly asking for evidence. In reality many surgeries leave the 'evidence not seen box' which can mean two possible scenarios: A) They did not bother to ask about evidence at all even though its an exemption claim or B) They were shown some documentation which they felt was proof of a qualifying benefit.

There is also a huge paradox in the whole "evidence" process in that the NHSBSA wording indicates that the surgery has to mark the form if no satisfactory evidence seen. This clearly implies therefore that the surgery staff ARE obliged to make an assessment as to whether is shown is valid evidence. Yet, this contradicts the bolded small print on the PR form which tells the patient that they are wholly responsible for the accuracy of the claim and that the surgery are in no way accountable. In addition, much of the advisory literature sent to surgeries indicates that they should be not be making definitive affirmative statements to patients about the validity of what is shown.

The whole debt recovery process involving the recovery of the NHS charges and the application of the civil penalty charge is incorrectly geared to punish too many genuine mistaken claims made by patients who are understandbly confused by poor information from the key agencies such as the DWP & HMRS. The current process does very little to chase patients who have deliberately made false claims and prefers to focus on easier targets. In addition, the current sampling methods employed by the NHSBSA ensure that way too many people in vulnerable groups are subject to the checks and rather aggressive letters which very early on mention fraud, court claims and CCJ's

http://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/house-garden-194/money-finance-entitlements-267/795235-dental-fine-costs-esa-please-help-all.html

[EXC]

Re: Akinika - NHS

Unfortunately, this is the standard advice from many CAB advisors and when i used to actually work for the NHSBSA Debt Recovery Team in Eastbourne i used to "bat away" such appeals all day long without breaking sweat. And i might add i hated every minute having to do it.

Blimey I didn't know that. Any other skeletons in your cupboard ?

Only kidding x.

[enaid]

Re: Akinika - NHS

Caved in on this and will pay up, am not usually one to give up but this is a nightmare and I think me get up and go, just went.
I don't condone ticking the exemption box because you think you may not get caught, I do feel so sorry for the genuine folks who through ignorance and according to the English dictionary
(ignorance meaning, definition, what is ignorance: lack of knowledge, understanding, or information about something):
is exactly how the innocent fall into this trap.
Once the exemption forms are sent from dentist, pharmacy or optician to the NHSBSA the robotic ball is rolling, they check with DWP if you are in receipt of the correct benefit for exemption and if not the penalties are immediately applied failure to pay in 28 days and another £50 added. After that fails to get payment the info is sent to the delightful DCA aninika, no idea how far they will go to get payment and tbh had no desire to test it.
Our situation was worsened because we didn't update the dentist with our new address, according to the NHSBSA a fault on both us and the dentist as they are supposed to have the right info when they submit the exemption forms.
Also if you fail to update your address with the DWP then that is an automatic £50 fine, didn't know that till yesterday either.
Anyway hopefully this is now behind us, just the parking ticket, which we have had no news of as yet, but early days .

[wales01man]

Re: Akinika - NHS

Shows how unequal this country is, A MP fiddles their expenses gets caught gets hand spanked pays back money not all of it sometimes.
One of us makes an innocent error and forgets to do something and gets hit with a Fine and a DCA chasing and threatening them Something wrong here???????

[enaid]

Re: Akinika - NHS

When i was on the phone to NHSBSA yesterday I asked him to check if my daughter was entitled to free treatment according to her entitlement letter. I read the relevant page to him and he said he thought she too was on contribution based ESA and therefore she would have to pay. He then said the only way to be sure is to ring the DWP, this I did and a lady there stated she is both contribution and income based ESA and as she gets more money on income based that is what she is on, so her treatment is free. The figure for contribution based is not on the letter only the income based figure.
On Ohs letter it has the contribution amount and the income based amount both funnily enough exactly the same, so because they are the same hi is on contribution based ESA and has to pay for his treatment.
A simple statement as below would imho save a lot of decent folk a lot of needless trauma.
The particular benefit you have been awarded does not entitle you to free prescriptions, dental treatment, sight tests or wigs and fabric supports.

[enaid]

Re: Akinika - NHS

Went to the pay portal at aninika to get them off our backs and this message appeared, doubt I be trying to pay them today lol

[EXC]

Re: Akinika - NHS

That looks well dodgy. Are you sure it was the legit site?

[enaid]

Re: Akinika - NHS

Can only fins this on Google and it looks ok to me
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourc...TF-8#q=akinika

[EXC]

Re: Akinika - NHS

I'd give them a call meself.

[enaid]

Re: Akinika - NHS

I'd give them a call meself.

You don't need to do that, but it is a tad scarey and osme people may not get the message I did.
I am going to report it to NHSBS though as they use them all the time.
As do the TV licensing co

[enaid]

Re: Akinika - NHS

All paid (hopefully, less they dig something else up) paid NHS direct as I refused to deal with a DCA, especially one not having brill reviews.