FOI-03964

Request   I need to know the number of people issued with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) over the last 12 months for those that have claimed to be on universal credit but are not entitled to free or reduced NHS treatment or prescriptions.   Please send it in a simple format with the total number/s for each month and the grand total for the year at the bottom to this email address.   The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 14 July 2026.  We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).    Our response   I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information is attached.  Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.  Individuals have been counted using their NHS number. This means a person may be included in more than one monthly count if they received a PCN in multiple months. As a result, the annual total does not mean that there were 99,470 unique individuals.  The NHS number is not complete in our dental data so we are unable to count unique individuals for dental cases. As there is no unique patient identifier available this information is not held for dental cases.  Data Queries   Please contact  [email protected]  ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.  Reusing the data and copyright   If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact  [email protected] . This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.  The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at:  http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/    Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2026”. Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.  Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.