Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2016 to Question 46907, how the HC3 scheme is (a) advertised and (b) communicated to patients; and whether there has been any change in how that scheme is advertised or communicated to patients since 2008.

HC3 certificates are provided through the means-tested NHS Low Income Scheme, which provides Help with Health Costs. Applicants to the scheme can be issued either:

- HC2 certificates. These qualify people for full help with their health costs.

- HC3 certificates. These qualify people for partial help with their health costs, and the certificate shows how much these people have to pay.

Information on Help with Health Costs in England is made available and communicated to the public and professionals through a number of materials and routes. These include:

- The HC10 poster. This is available to any National Health Service patient service, but targeted at general practitioner (GP) surgeries, dental practices, opticians and pharmacies to explain briefly what help is available to patients.

- The HC11 leaflet. This is a comprehensive guide, available online (prior to 2012 this was available in print), of what help is available to patients of a particular age, with a particular medical condition, or who are on a low income or claiming benefits. This is temporarily unavailable as changes need to be made.

- The HC12 leaflet. This is a ‘quick guide’ to help with health costs and contains some of the same information as the HC11.

- The ‘Claiming free prescriptions?’ booklet and poster. The leaflet is available at the point of dispensing and explains which patients are eligible for free prescriptions, what evidence they need to show to be able to claim and where they can go to get help with their health costs. A supply of booklets and posters was sent to English pharmacies and GP practices in 2014, and refreshed booklets were issued in 2016.

- The ‘Claiming free treatment?’ factsheets and posters for dental services, which were distributed to NHS dental practices in England and Wales in 2014. Refreshed versions were published on the NHS Business Services Authority website in 2016. These explain which patients are eligible for free NHS dental treatment, what evidence they need to show to be able to claim and where they can go to get help with their health costs.

- NHS dental services in England leaflet. This is available from any NHS dental practice and provides information on free NHS dental treatment or help with health costs.

- HwHC forms and posters are also made available to universities and Citizens Advice Bureaus on request.

- Jobcentre Plus and HM Revenue & Customs include information about NHS Help with Health Costs in their literature and have forms available within their offices sourced through the NHS Print contract.

- Information on help with health costs is also available on the NHS Choices website and the NHS Business Services Authority website (and its Ask Us knowledge base).

- Arrangements to distribute some of the posters and leaflets listed above to GP practices, pharmacies, dental surgeries and opticians.

Since 2008, there have been several changes to the publicity arrangements. The principal change has been in relation to the Waiting Room Information Service, which supported distribution of the HC12 leaflets to those GP practices and pharmacies that signed up to the service, of which there were around 6,000 and 1,000 respectively. This contract ended this year and new long-term arrangements are being developed. In the interim we will have a mail-out to 21,000 pharmacies and doctors on a quarterly basis.

Since September 2015, the Pension Service literature, which had included information on Help with Health Costs, was withdrawn and moved to GOV.UK, and customers are now signposted to the NHS Choices website for information on the Help with Health Costs services.