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Dentist treatment and questioning by staff

Jona

Hi...
I am on LCWRA and as youll likely know....there is no card i can show to the dentist's i am now attending...So i showed them a printed copy of my allowance for the month....£blotted out but name,address etc all there to verify..

But upon giving this info...the lady stated, if you do not receive UC....then you will be charged and fined. Fortunately, no one else was in the waiting room, due to the covid restrictions....but will this be said to me everytime i have treatment there?.....i know someone else on UC LCWRA and they told me they never had this said to them.....its very embarrassing..!

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janer1967

Hi and welcome

This was very unprofessional and I would suggest you speak to the practice manager so this can be dealt with so it doesnt happen to you or anyone else

Jona

janer1967 said:

Hi and welcome

This was very unprofessional and I would suggest you speak to the practice manager so this can be dealt with so it doesnt happen to you or anyone else

Many thanks......what i did forget to mention , is that the receptionist stated they had to tell me this...As i queried the statement at the time...ie i actually said " i'm hardly going to try and get free treatment by fraud, after showing you my identity and driving license"....but they just repeated it again...

Do you know of a way i can prove i am on LCWRA? as tax credits use to have a card but with UC , im having to arrive to places, showing a crude print off of my payments...? many thanks for any help

janer1967

Hi again

There is no card but maybe you can log onto your account on your phone and show the statements

I'm not sure most places I think the surgery fill in the claim form and then when sent off they use your ni number to check its valid claim

Jona

Many thanks @janer1967

calcotti

Jona said: Do you know of a way i can prove i am on LCWRA? as tax credits use to have a card but with UC , im having to arrive to places, showing a crude print off of my payments...? many thanks for any help

You don't get entitlement to free dental by having LCWRA.

You are entitled to free dental care if you are a UC claimant and your earnings shown on your statement for the previous assessment period were below the applicable threshold. If you are in a household with variable income this means you might qualify for free dental care some of the time but not all of the time.

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/help-with-health-costs/help-with-health-costs-for-people-getting-universal-credit/

calcotti

There is also an entitlement checker here
https://www.gov.uk/help-nhs-costs

Jona

Username_removed said:

There is another side to this worth mentioning.

The relevant form referred only to receipt of ESA until recently. Many people in receipt of UC, unable to see a box which applied to them, ticked the ESA box and never thought to write “UC” next to it. The outcome of this was that NHS checks spotted that UC was not being paid and there was a significant national spate of people being billed large amounts for their treatment which they didn’t see coming and couldn’t afford. Fines too. Worse still, in many cases, the checks were wrong and people were entitled to free dental treatment but found their time being used to challenge charges and fines.

As of this were not bad enough the dental practices who would normally be paid by refunds from the NHS found themselves significantly out of pocket when the NHS said they weren’t paying them for potentially fraudulent claims. So, distressed patients and out of pocket dental practises. Always useful to remember that such practises are not on well off areas. Much of their patient list would be on benefits so income would not be stunning to begin with. Add in a further reduction from C19. An unholy mess.

Put in this context then I hope you can see why a dental practise, which might otherwise have trusted without question that tick you put in the box, might now feel obliged to make damn sure you weren’t carelessly shafting yourself and them in the process.

Fully appreciate you may not have liked the way they said what they said but then confidentiality in NHS practises is limited. Hopefully you’ll appreciate it almost certainly wasn’t just you and there is absolutely a logic for it.

I receive LCWRA UC and live alone....as far as i could see...i am entitled...but given the information youve supplied,it seems i cant be wholly sure!
I actually received a fine approx 3yrs ago, from the nhs, due to a dental charge. I had to contest it and had it reversed. Even though another scope member linked me to the self checker....im still not sure i am entitled ? As i mentioned, i live alone and the only income is LCWRA. How could i afford dental treatment without help?

Jona

Username_removed said:

There is another side to this worth mentioning.

The relevant form referred only to receipt of ESA until recently. Many people in receipt of UC, unable to see a box which applied to them, ticked the ESA box and never thought to write “UC” next to it. The outcome of this was that NHS checks spotted that UC was not being paid and there was a significant national spate of people being billed large amounts for their treatment which they didn’t see coming and couldn’t afford. Fines too. Worse still, in many cases, the checks were wrong and people were entitled to free dental treatment but found their time being used to challenge charges and fines.

As of this were not bad enough the dental practices who would normally be paid by refunds from the NHS found themselves significantly out of pocket when the NHS said they weren’t paying them for potentially fraudulent claims. So, distressed patients and out of pocket dental practises. Always useful to remember that such practises are not on well off areas. Much of their patient list would be on benefits so income would not be stunning to begin with. Add in a further reduction from C19. An unholy mess.

Put in this context then I hope you can see why a dental practise, which might otherwise have trusted without question that tick you put in the box, might now feel obliged to make damn sure you weren’t carelessly shafting yourself and them in the process.

Fully appreciate you may not have liked the way they said what they said but then confidentiality in NHS practises is limited. Hopefully you’ll appreciate it almost certainly wasn’t just you and there is absolutely a logic for it.

ps......quote:you receive Universal Credit, which includes an element for a child, or you (or your partner) had limited capability for work (LCW) or limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA), and you either had no earnings or net earnings of £935 or less in your last Universal Credit assessment period

end quote:

Sorry for my ignorance...but what is classed as earnings?.....is this my UC payment per month?

hass

Hi all

Hope your all ok.
This is shocking and highly un proffessional.
I would make a complaint

calcotti

Jona said:Sorry for my ignorance...but what is classed as earnings?.....is this my UC payment per month?

Earnings are income from employment. If you are not working you have no earnings.

Adrian_Scope

Hi @Jona, I'm sorry you felt embarrassed by their questioning, I think most people would have felt the same in your position.
I don't believe Mike's intention was for you to question your own entitlement, he was highlighting why dental surgeries may be checking it more stringently.

From what you've described it sounds like you qualify.

Jona

Adrian_Scope said:

Hi @Jona, I'm sorry you felt embarrassed by their questioning, I think most people would have felt the same in your position.
I don't believe Mike's intention was for you to question your own entitlement, he was highlighting why dental surgeries may be checking it more stringently.

From what you've described it sounds like you qualify.

I hope i didnt come across like that.,......Mikes comment was spot on.....no problems at all

philimon

I think that you do not have a permit for free dental care. It wasn't like that at all, and it would have to be done. But I didn't understand why you had to pay a fine? An awkward situation... When I tried to get dental care in [removed by moderator - advertising link] during the covid-19, I was assisted by my insurance. I had already had two covid vaccinations, so they let me into the waiting room and did everything. I am glad that I was vaccinated against coronavirus. Now I don't know what I'm going to do. The doctor told me that I had not yet passed all the stages of vaccination...

poppy123456

philimon said:

I think that you do not have a permit for free dental care. It wasn't like that at all, and it would have to be done. But I didn't understand why you had to pay a fine? An awkward situation... When I tried to get dental care in https://perfectasmile.com / during the covid-19, I was assisted by my insurance. I had already had two covid vaccinations, so they let me into the waiting room and did everything. I am glad that I was vaccinated against coronavirus. Now I don't know what I'm going to do. The doctor told me that I had not yet passed all the stages of vaccination...

Hi,

You've posted on a thread that's 8 months old. The link you've posted above is a link for USA but Scope is based in the UK so that link is not relevant here. Over here in the UK some people are entitled to free NHS dental treatment based on their financial circumstances.

Tori_Scope

The doctor told me that I had not yet passed all the stages of vaccination...

Do you know what they meant by this @philimon? Did this prevent you from accessing dental treatment?

Just to let you know, I've removed the link from your comment as it appeared to be advertising a paid service. This breaches our house rules.

Tori_Scope

Hi @gomezjac

Welcome to the community! Thanks for sharing your experience.

Just to let you know, I've removed a link from your post as it appeared to be advertising a service. We don't allow advertising on the community, as is outlined in our house rules.

poppy123456

preciousmine said:

Then you need all the necessary documents if you want to get free treatment.

This thread was started 19 months ago so hopefully the member has had no further issues.

Tori_Scope

Welcome to the community @preciousmine

Is this something you've experienced yourself?

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