amusingly (or not)
while means-tested benefits like Income Support or Jobseekers' Allowance automatically entitle the recipient to free prescriptions/eye tests/dental care/etc, contributions-based ESA doesn't, and nor do payments of Statutory Sick Pay when you've been off work for a few weeks/months but are still technically employed.

There are two possible workarounds.

One is to obtain and fill out the HC1 form (which I think is what you're referring to) for an exemption certificate. No one I know is *entirely* certain what the algorithm for working it out is. I had a certificate for a while that helpfully said I only had to pay the first £30 of each item - useful if you're prescribed expensive things like wigs or prostheses, a bit pointless when it comes to regular medications and non-major dental work.

The other is to apply for means-tested income support on top of your disability benefit. If you are officially designated as "moderately" or "severely" disabled then the amount of money you are considered to need to live off (your "applicable amount") goes up and Income Support can make up the shortfall. I was getting something silly like £8 per month in actual Income Support payments but the fact I got it at all meant an automatic eligibility for the prescriptions and whatnot.

Of course the downside there is that your Applicable Amount only increases if you are officially disabled, ie you have been approved to receive a certain level of Disability Living Allowance, and that can't happen until you've been actually disabled for a full six months already (plus it takes a while to process).

Obviously the first six months of disability is when you are being tried on myriad different medications, being prescribed your first mobility aids, travelling to and from hospital, so the costs are high during this period. But until the problems are officially acknowledged, they don't exist...

Please note that I am not a benefits advisor. This post is based on my experiences a few years ago. YMMV. Never take the advice of random strangers on the internet without checking against a more reliable source first.
( Batsgirl, Mon 14 Nov 2011, 10:27, 1 reply)

Done and rejected
I did apply for DLA and also sent in the HC1 forms
Both were rejected on the basis that I rarely visit my doctor.
Catch 22, I rarely visit because all he can do for me now is issue prescriptions for pain relief medication.
I decline most of these, save money ( QOTW related) by buying supermarket own brand ibuprofen and paracetamol at a fraction of the price.
However having been recently prescribed medication that I will be on for the rest of my life (Doc is understanding of my financial predicament and gives me 2 months supply on one scrip) i'm going to try the HC1 again
(insomniac-surfer oh go on then, just this once, Mon 14 Nov 2011, 23:57, closed)

good luck.
Although if you ever apply for DLA again, and get rejected, it's really worth going to appeal. Most people don't (too much stress, too ill to handle it, can't access help, assume the DWP have done their jobs properly) but the success rate for those who do is astonishingly high.

From what I hear, part of this is that the appeals panels have to read *all* the evidence you presented, whereas a DWP decision maker has about 20 minutes to scan through each case. So cases that don't neatly fit the boxes get turned down just because some poor bugger in an office doesn't have the time to understand the situation.

I had to go to appeal a couple of years ago. I'd been turned down flat when renewing. The panel asked me a few sensible questions, spent about 20 minutes telling off the DWP representative who was present, and then unanimously reinstated my award with back-pay and an apology.
( Batsgirl, Tue 15 Nov 2011, 11:14, closed)

Maybe ive been misinformed
But I thought DLA was being phased out now?
Basically if you already on it, you are fine, any new claims are a no no.
(insomniac-surfer oh go on then, just this once, Tue 15 Nov 2011, 22:40, closed)