Free prescriptions and dental treatment on Universal Credit: the £435 and £935 limits

Yes. In England you get free NHS prescriptions on Universal Credit if your earned income in your last assessment period was £435 or less, or £935 or less if your award includes a child element or you have limited capability for work. For a couple, it is your combined earnings that count. The rule is regulation 5 of the National Health Service (Travel Expenses and Remission of Charges) Regulations 2003, which applies to England. It makes a "relevant universal credit recipient" entitled to the full remission of NHS charges, and to NHS travel expenses in full, without making a claim. The same test gives free dental treatment, free sight tests, help with the cost of glasses or contact lenses, free wigs and fabric supports, and refunds of necessary travel to hospital for NHS treatment, so one check covers all of them. Without it, a prescription in England costs £9.90 an item. The government froze that charge for 2026/27, extending a freeze that began the year before, and froze the 3-month and 12-month prepayment certificates too, at £32.05 and £114.50. It also says around 89% of prescriptions in England are already dispensed free, to children, over-60s, pregnant women and people with certain medical conditions. The age exemptions in the charging regulations cover anyone under 16, anyone under 19 in qualifying full-time education, and anyone aged 60 or over, whatever their Universal Credit. Getting Universal Credit is not enough on its own: you have to be under the earnings limit in the right assessment period. If you meet the higher limit, the regulation also covers a child or qualifying young person you are responsible for. You tick a box on the back of the prescription form, it is your responsibility to make sure the right box is ticked, and the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) checks claims afterwards. That is why most of this guide is about how the limit is measured. Prescriptions are free for everyone in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and in Wales if you are registered with a Welsh GP, so the earnings test matters most in England. The sections near the end cover the other nations.

Yes. In England free NHS dental treatment on Universal Credit uses exactly the same test as prescriptions: earned income of £435 or less in the relevant assessment period, or £935 or less with a child element or limited capability for work. Regulation 4 of the remission regulations defines the NHS charges it covers to include charges for relevant dental services, and the dental charging regulations make every band subject to those remission rules. If you do not qualify, NHS dental treatment in England has cost these amounts since 1 April 2026: £27.90 for a band 1 course, £76.60 for band 2 and £332.10 for band 3. An urgent course of treatment is charged at £27.90. Since 23 June 2026 a new complex care pathway has been charged at the band 2 rate of £76.60. Only one charge is made for any one course of treatment. If you need a mix of treatments from different bands, you pay for the highest band, and if you need further treatment within 2 months that falls in the same band or a lower one, you do not pay extra. Some visits cost nothing for anyone: there is no charge where the only thing you get is stitches removed, or an examination that leads only to a prescription, the repair of a dental appliance or the stopping of bleeding. If your treatment is a mix of NHS and private work, the free entitlement only covers the NHS part, and you still pay for the private treatment. Treatment is also free, whatever your income, if you are under 18, under 19 and in full-time education, or pregnant or have had a baby in the last 12 months when you are accepted for the course. New Style Jobseeker's Allowance and New Style Employment and Support Allowance do not give free dental treatment. The timing needs care. The regulation looks at the assessment period before the one in which the charge "was paid", and dental charges can be paid up front or in instalments, so the period that counts may not be the one in which your treatment starts. Check you are under the limit before each payment. If you have only just claimed Universal Credit, NHSBSA says to pay for your dental treatment and apply for a refund. The refund claim must arrive within 3 months of the date you paid, on form HC5(D). If you are paying by instalments, you need a receipt for each one, and the claim must arrive within 3 months of paying the final instalment. NHSBSA warns you not to claim free dental treatment unless you are certain you are entitled to it, because you may be charged a penalty of up to £100. One warning about leaflets: NHSBSA's HC11 leaflet marked as applying from April 2026 still prints the 2025 dental charges. The figures here are from the regulations, which nhs.uk matches.

They are monthly limits on earned income in one Universal Credit assessment period, set by regulation 5(1A) of the 2003 remission regulations. You meet the lower one if, in the relevant assessment period, you had an award of Universal Credit, either as a single claimant or as one of joint claimants, where the award did not include the child element, neither you nor (for a couple) your partner had limited capability for work, and the single claimant had earned income, or the joint claimants had combined earned income, of £435 or less. You meet the higher one if the award included the child element and your earned income, or your combined earned income, was £935 or less. You also meet it if the single claimant, or one or both joint claimants, had limited capability for work and the earned income was £935 or less. So a couple only needs one of them to have limited capability for work. The regulation says limited capability for work includes limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA), the outcome the LCWRA assessment decides. It also covers a child or qualifying young person that a claimant meeting the higher limit is responsible for. The figures are monthly because a Universal Credit assessment period is a month. They have applied in this form since 1 December 2016, and NHSBSA's April 2026 leaflet gives the same £435 and £935. Two points follow from the wording. First, the child element is the one in regulation 24(1) of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013, so what matters is whether your award includes it. If you are not sure, the child element calculator shows what each child adds to an award. Second, the regulation asks whether you had limited capability for work, not whether your award includes an element for it. On our reading, a finding of limited capability for work counts for the £935 limit even where no extra money is paid for it, and nhs.uk's wording, "you (or your partner) had limited capability for work", supports that. For a joint claim, the limit is never doubled: a couple with no child element and no limited capability for work shares one £435. Healthy Start on Universal Credit uses a similar take-home pay test, but with its own limit, so passing one does not mean you pass the other.

Your earned income as Universal Credit counts it, which is pay after income tax, National Insurance and pension contributions. The remission regulations define earned income by pointing to Chapter 2 of Part 6 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013. Regulation 52 makes it the pay or profits from employment, an office, a trade, profession or vocation, or any other paid work, plus anything treated as earned income under that Chapter. Regulation 55(5) then takes off income tax, primary Class 1 National Insurance and relievable pension contributions. NHSBSA puts it as your household's total take-home pay: the net income earned by everyone in your household after tax, National Insurance and pensions are deducted. Most benefits are not earned income, so Universal Credit itself, Child Benefit and Personal Independence Payment do not count towards the limit, and nhs.uk confirms that having no earnings at all meets the test. Some payments do count, though. Regulation 55(4) treats statutory sick pay, statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental pay, statutory parental bereavement pay and statutory neonatal care pay as employed earnings, and regulation 55(4A) does the same for a refund of income tax or National Insurance from HMRC for a tax year in which you were in paid work. All of these count towards the £435 and £935. If you are on maternity leave, for example, your Statutory Maternity Pay is earnings for this test. Regulation 55(5) also takes off anything withheld from your pay for payroll giving. To see what Universal Credit counted, look at the earnings and the elements for the period on your monthly statement, which reading your Universal Credit statement explains line by line. For a couple the figure is combined. If one of you earns £500 a month and the other nothing, and there is no child element and no limited capability for work, you are over the £435 limit, even though one of you has no income. That example is ours, from the wording of the regulation. Pay that moves up and down matters too. Because the test runs one assessment period at a time, a month with overtime can take you over £435 or £935 and the next month bring you back under, switching the entitlement off and on. NHSBSA says that if your working hours and income change, it is important to check regularly whether you are entitled. If you are paid every four weeks, an assessment period can contain two paydays, which can push that month over. If you are self-employed, NHSBSA says the rules for calculating your net earned income under Universal Credit are different. Gov.uk explains that a gainfully self-employed claimant's payment may be worked out on an assumed level of earnings, the minimum income floor. Regulation 62(2) says a claimant on the floor "is to be treated as having earned income equal to that threshold", and regulation 52(b) makes income treated as earned under that Chapter part of earned income. So on the regulations it is the assumed figure, not your actual profit, that is measured against the limit, which would usually put you over £435. No NHS source we checked says this in terms, so check with the NHS online checker before claiming free. If you have limited capability for work and related activity and also work, working on LCWRA covers how earnings affect the award itself; the £935 limit here is a separate test.

The assessment period immediately before the one in which you pay the charge. Regulation 5(1D) defines the relevant assessment period as "the assessment period immediately preceding that in which the NHS charge was paid or NHS travel expenses incurred". So your earnings this month decide whether you can claim free in your next assessment period, not this one. NHSBSA describes it as the period that ended immediately before the date you made your claim, and nhs.uk as the last completed assessment period before your health costs arose. Those usually come to the same thing, but where they differ, the regulation is the law, and it is tied to when you pay. Assessment periods are months that start on the first day of your entitlement, not calendar months, as assessment periods and payment dates explains, so a prescription collected on the 3rd and another on the 20th of the same calendar month can fall in different periods. The regulations also give a refund route. If you meet the conditions in the assessment period in which you pay, but not in the one before, or there is no earlier period because your claim is new, you are treated as entitled to claim a repayment. In practice that means three things. First, if you have just claimed Universal Credit, you have not finished a full assessment period, so you cannot claim free at the counter yet. NHSBSA says to pay for your prescription and immediately ask the pharmacy, hospital or doctor for a refund claim form, the FP57. Nhs.uk adds that you must get the receipt and FP57 when you pay, because you cannot get one later. Second, if you are unsure whether you meet the limit, nhs.uk says to pay and claim a refund once you can confirm your entitlement. You qualify for the refund if you met the conditions either in the period before you paid or in the same assessment period in which you paid. Third, refund claims must arrive within 3 months of the date you paid: for a private sight test, the date you paid for the test, and for glasses or contact lenses, the date you paid for them. Prescriptions use the FP57, and other costs use the HC5 forms: HC5(D) for dental, HC5(O) for optical, HC5(T) for travel and HC5(W) for wigs. For glasses and contact lenses, the optical regulations key the same refund rule to the assessment period in which the glasses are paid for.

Yes. In England nhs.uk lists Universal Credit within the earnings limits as a route to a free NHS sight test, for you, your partner and dependants under 20. Vouchers towards glasses or contact lenses use the same £435 and £935 test, written into regulation 8 of the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 2013. The voucher's value depends on your prescription. For single vision lenses the four bands are £42.40, £64.26, £94.14 and £212.40, and for bifocals £73.10, £92.72, £120.48 and £233.56. After a sight test by an NHS hospital trust, the voucher is £217.58 for glasses or £61.77 for a contact lens. These values were last changed on 1 April 2024 and the April 2026 leaflet repeats them. Complex lens vouchers, currently £15.81 for single vision lenses and £40.57 for other complex lenses such as bifocals, are a separate route. Nhs.uk says they are only for people who meet the clinical criteria and are not eligible for one of the main optical vouchers, and regulation 15(4) pays one only where a person is eligible solely because of a complex lens prescription. So on Universal Credit within the limit you get the main voucher, not a complex lens voucher on top. Once you have used a voucher, you cannot get a refund of any difference between the voucher value and what the glasses cost, unless it was a complex lens voucher. If you paid without a voucher, for example because you had just claimed, the most you can get back is the voucher value that matches your prescription, claimed on form HC5(O) within 3 months of the date you paid for the glasses or contact lenses. People named on an HC3 certificate from the Low Income Scheme may also get help with the cost of a private sight test. Checks on sight tests and vouchers are made by NHS England's Primary Care Support Services, and a wrongly claimed test or voucher means paying the cost of the test and the voucher value, plus a penalty of up to £100. We could not confirm the exact regulation that gives Universal Credit claimants a free sight test in England, because the eye-test regulations are only published as originally made, so this part rests on nhs.uk and NHSBSA rather than the statute.

Yes, both are covered by the same Universal Credit test, with some extra conditions for travel. Under the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme you can claim back the cost of travelling to NHS treatment if, at the time of your appointment, you or your partner get Universal Credit and meet the criteria. You also need a referral for specialist care from a healthcare professional, and the appointment must be on a separate visit from the one where the referral was made. You cannot claim for visiting someone in hospital, or for routine check-ups with a GP, dentist or other primary care service. You should use the cheapest suitable transport, which in most cases is public transport. You pay first and claim back within 3 months, by taking your travel receipts, your appointment letter or card and proof of your benefit to a nominated cashiers' office at the hospital. If the hospital has no cashier, you can post form HC5(T) up to 3 months after your appointment. If your healthcare professional says it is medically necessary for someone to travel with you, you can claim for an escort too. Wigs and fabric supports are free on the same terms, for you, your partner and dependants under 20. Tell the person who fits your wig or fabric support that you are entitled to it free, and show your proof. If you do not qualify, the charges in England are set by the 2015 charging regulations and have not changed since 1 May 2024: £32.50 for a surgical brassiere, £49.05 for an abdominal or spinal support, £80.15 for a stock modacrylic wig, £212.35 for a partial human hair wig and £310.55 for a full bespoke human hair wig. A refund for a wig or support you paid for goes on form HC5(W).

Show your Universal Credit award notice, and on the prescription form tick box U, or box K if the form has no U box. NHSBSA and nhs.uk both say the award notice is how you prove your entitlement. If you do not have one, NHSBSA's leaflet says to ask at your Jobcentre Plus office or ring the Universal Credit helpline, which gov.uk gives as 0800 328 5644. On the back of a prescription form in England, box U is for Universal Credit with take-home pay under the limit. Not every form has a box for Universal Credit, and NHSBSA says that where it is missing you should tick box K, which is for income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, instead. That still applies even though income-based Jobseeker's Allowance was taken out of the remission regulations on 15 April 2026. Dental treatment has a claim form too, and the same rule applies. The responsibility is yours. NHSBSA says it is your responsibility to make sure the correct box is ticked on your prescription or dental claim form, whether it is ticked by you, by someone on your behalf, or by pharmacy or dental practice staff. So if a pharmacist ticks the box because they know you get Universal Credit, and your pay was over the limit in the relevant period, the penalty still comes to you. For hospital travel, take proof of your benefit to the cashiers' office with your receipts and appointment letter. For a wig or fabric support, show your proof to the person who fits it. Keep your award notices after each claim, because NHSBSA's checks happen after the event. If you are not sure whether you qualify, gov.uk links to an NHS online checker.

You pay the original charge plus a penalty charge of 5 times that charge, up to a maximum of £100. NHSBSA's message is: do not assume you're automatically covered, and always check before you claim. The process starts with a check. If NHSBSA cannot confirm that you were entitled to free prescriptions or dental treatment, it sends an enquiry letter asking you to confirm your entitlement. If you do not reply within 28 days, it sends a Penalty Charge Notice. The notice asks you to pay both the original prescription or dental charges and an additional penalty charge. The National Health Service (Penalty Charge) Regulations 1999 set the penalty at whichever is smaller of £100 and 5 times the charge. If you have not paid within 28 days of the notice, NHSBSA says a surcharge may be added. Applying 2026/27 charges to the examples in NHSBSA's leaflet, wrongly claiming two prescription items (£19.80) costs a penalty of £99.00 plus the £19.80. Wrongly claiming a band 1 dental course costs £100.00, because 5 times £27.90 is over the cap, plus the £27.90. Optical claims can also carry a penalty of up to £100. If you get an enquiry letter and you were entitled, reply within 28 days with your evidence; this is where keeping your award notices pays off. Some benefits sound as if they should qualify and do not. NHSBSA says you are not entitled to free prescriptions if you are on New Style Jobseeker's Allowance on its own, New Style Employment and Support Allowance on its own, Pension Credit Savings Credit on its own, or a benefit such as Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment on its own. If you used to get free prescriptions on income-related Employment and Support Allowance and have since moved from ESA to Universal Credit, it is now the Universal Credit earnings test above that decides, so check before you tick.

You can apply to the NHS Low Income Scheme, which may give you an HC2 certificate for full help or an HC3 for partial help. NHSBSA says that if your income is higher than the Universal Credit limits, you might be able to get Universal Credit and also apply for help from the scheme. If your take-home pay is below the limits, the scheme cannot give you any more help, and nhs.uk says you do not need to apply. The scheme covers the same costs: prescription charges, dental charges, sight tests, glasses and contact lenses, travel to NHS treatment, and wigs and fabric supports. You cannot get help if you have savings, investments or property over £16,000, or £23,250 if you live permanently in a care home (£24,000 in Wales). NHSBSA compares your weekly income with your weekly needs. Your income includes earnings after tax, National Insurance and half of any pension contributions, and social security benefits, so your Universal Credit is counted as income here. Your needs include a personal allowance, premiums, housing costs and council tax. You get full help if your income is no more than your needs, or is above them by no more than half the prescription charge. If it is higher than that, you may get partial help, and the HC3 certificate states how much you pay towards each cost. An HC3 does not give free prescriptions. An HC2 also covers your partner and any dependent children under 19 named on the claim. You can apply online unless, for example, you have more than £6,000 in savings, investments or property, live in Northern Ireland, are a student living with a partner, or have no income. In those cases you use the paper HC1 form, which you can order or download from NHSBSA, or may find at a Jobcentre Plus office or NHS hospital. If you are employed, send your 2 most recent payslips if you are paid monthly or four-weekly, or your 5 most recent if paid weekly or fortnightly. The address is NHS Low Income Scheme, NHS Business Services Authority, Bridge House, 152 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 6SN, and it is not freepost. NHSBSA usually assesses an application within 18 working days, help starts from the date it gets your form, and a certificate usually lasts between 6 months and 5 years. You can claim refunds for costs already paid at the same time. The helpline is 0300 330 1343, Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 9am to 3pm, and you can ask for a review there if you think the assessment is wrong. If you mainly need prescriptions, a prepayment certificate may be simpler: £32.05 for 3 months, which saves money if you need more than 3 items in that time, or £114.50 for 12 months, which saves money above 11 items a year, payable as 10 monthly direct debits of £11.45. An HRT prepayment certificate costs £19.80 for 12 months, covering certain HRT medicines. If a pay rise is about to take you over £435 or £935, the Better Off In Work Calculator shows what it does to your Universal Credit as well.

In Scotland prescriptions are free for everyone, and NHS inform uses the same £435 and £935 figures for free dental treatment, glasses vouchers and hospital travel. NHS inform says plainly that prescriptions in Scotland are free. A prescription form issued in England is charged at the English rate of £9.90 an item, unless you are entitled to free prescriptions in England. Eye examinations are free in Scotland for anyone who usually lives in the UK, and everyone is entitled to free NHS dental examinations. NHS dental treatment is free for everyone under 26, for anyone pregnant or who has given birth in the last 12 months, and for people with a certificated exemption because of their income or benefits. Other NHS patients pay 80% of the cost of treatment, capped at £384 a course. On Universal Credit, NHS inform says you get free NHS dental treatment, vouchers towards glasses or contact lenses, and a refund of any reasonable amount spent on travel to treatment at an NHS hospital, if you had no earnings or take-home pay of £435 or less in the most recent assessment period. The limit is £935 where your Universal Credit "includes an element for a child and/or limited capability for work-related activity", in NHS inform's words. That differs from England's regulation, which also counts limited capability for work without the work-related activity part. We could not read the Scottish regulations in their current form, so if you have limited capability for work but not LCWRA, check before claiming free in Scotland. Your partner and children also get a glasses voucher if they are included in your benefit award. If you are over the limit, the Low Income Scheme still helps in Scotland with dental treatment that starts on or after your 26th birthday, glasses and contact lenses, and wigs and fabric supports. The Scottish HC1 form is also available from Jobcentres, GP practices, pharmacies and Citizens Advice. For the other ways benefits differ north of the border, see Universal Credit in Scotland.

In Wales prescriptions are free if you are registered with a Welsh GP, and the Welsh Government lists Universal Credit as giving free dental treatment, a free sight test and a glasses voucher. Gov.wales says that if you are registered with a GP in Wales you are entitled to free prescriptions from a pharmacist in Wales. Dental examinations are free if you are under 25 or 60 or over, and dental treatment is free if, when the treatment starts or the charge is made, you or your partner get certain benefits, including Universal Credit. If you pay, Wales now charges by care package, for example £37.50 for an urgent care package and £27.21 for a new patient assessment, with a maximum total charge of £384 for a course of treatment. We could not confirm the date the new Welsh charges started. For eyes, gov.wales says that if you get Universal Credit you are entitled to a free NHS sight test and an optical voucher, and that to prove it you need an entitlement letter from your Jobcentre Plus office. Help with travel is for treatment under the care of a consultant. The one thing we could not confirm is whether Wales applies the £435 and £935 earnings limits. Gov.wales lists Universal Credit without stating an earnings limit, the notes to the Welsh HC1W form say Universal Credit claimants are already entitled to full help, and the current Welsh regulations are not published in revised form. Northern Ireland's health department, announcing its own change, said an earnings threshold applies in Great Britain, but that is not a Welsh source. So if you work and live in Wales, check with the NHS online checker or the service before claiming free. If you are over any limit, the Low Income Scheme in Wales uses its own certificates, HC2W for full help and HC3W for partial help, and still helps with dental check-ups if you are 25 or older, dental treatment, sight tests, glasses, travel, and wigs and fabric supports.

In Northern Ireland prescriptions are free for everyone, and since 1 December 2025 Universal Credit within the £435 and £935 limits gives automatic free dental treatment, sight tests, glasses vouchers and travel. Nidirect says all prescriptions dispensed in Northern Ireland are free of charge for everyone, including medication, wigs and surgical appliances. For the rest, you qualify if in your last assessment period you had no earnings or net earnings of £435 or less; or were claiming for children and had no earnings or net earnings of £935 or less; or were assessed as having limited capability for work, or for work and work-related activity, and declared income of £935 or less. That gives free Health Service dental treatment, free sight tests, vouchers towards glasses or contact lenses, and help with travel for treatment on referral by a doctor or dentist. The Department of Health announced in November 2025 that this automatic entitlement would start from 1 December for eligible Universal Credit claimants. Until then it had not applied, because Northern Ireland's legislation had not been amended to reflect Universal Credit. The department said adopting the Great Britain thresholds restores parity across the UK. If you get Universal Credit but are over the limits, you can still apply to the Low Income Scheme to have your eligibility assessed before treatment, through the Universal Credit Service Centre or your local Jobs and Benefits office rather than online. Certificates there run for 12 months, HC2 for full help and HC3 for partial help. The date your HC1 form reaches a Jobs and Benefits office is the date payment can be considered from, not the date you downloaded it. Northern Ireland's dental charges are published each year in the Statement of Dental Remuneration; we have not stated a cap for them because we could not confirm one from an official source. Universal Credit in Northern Ireland covers how the benefit itself differs there.

No. Free prescriptions, free dental treatment, glasses vouchers and travel refunds are not on the list of unearned income in regulation 66 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013, which is the only income apart from earnings that reduces an award, so they do not change your payment. The link runs the other way: your Universal Credit award and your earnings decide whether you get the help. That means a pay rise can end free prescriptions while you still get Universal Credit, and a new child element or a finding of limited capability for work can bring you back in at £935. The same is true of the Low Income Scheme, where your Universal Credit is counted as income in the assessment but the certificate itself does not count against your award. Other help that is unlocked by your Universal Credit award works in a similar way, including free school meals for your children and, if someone close to you dies, a Funeral Expenses Payment. Each has its own rules, so check them one by one rather than assuming that qualifying for one means qualifying for all.