Published 26 June 2025.
Publication
NHS Help with Health Costs 2024/25 statistical summary narrative (HTML)
The Help with Health Costs 2024/25 dashboard will allow you to explore the data in more detail.
Summary
The NHSBSA administer a range of services to help people with health costs, including help with:
- NHS prescription costs
- NHS dental costs
- sight tests, glasses and contact lenses
- travel to receive NHS treatment
- NHS wigs and fabric supports
Full details of these schemes are available on the Help with Health Costs webpage.
Different certificate schemes are available, with different levels of help with health costs:
- NHS Prescription Prepayment certificate (PPC)
- NHS Low Income Scheme (LIS)
- NHS Hormone Replacement Therapy Prescription Prepayment Certificate (HRT PPC)
- Medical exemption certificate
- Maternity exemption certificate
Tax Credit payments made by HMRC ended on 5 April 2025, so the NHS Tax Credit exemption certificate scheme is no longer issuing certificates. Data on the tax credit scheme in 2024/25 is included in this release.
The Help with Health Costs – England 2024/25 publication is an official statistic in development. It has been produced with full consideration of the standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
Key findings
Maternity exemption certificates
The number of certificates issued has risen each year since 2020/21. There were 574,000 maternity exemption certificates issued in 2024/25.
Generally, less deprived areas of the country received fewer maternity exemption certificates than more deprived areas. The number of certificates issued was highest in 30-34 year olds, accounting for 36% of all certificates issued.
Medical exemption certificates
The number of certificates issued has risen over the past 3 years, following a drop between 2019/20 and 2021/22. There were 484,000 medical exemption certificates issued in 2024/25.
The number of certificates issued is higher in older age groups than in younger age groups.
NHS Low Income Scheme
The total number of certificates issued in 2024/25 fell to 242,000. This was due to the number of HC2 certificates issued decreasing for the second year in a row, to 154,000 certificates. There were 87,900 HC3 certificates, a slight increase from 2023/24.
Certificates were most commonly issued to people from the youngest age groups of 15-19 and 20-24, and the oldest age group of 65+. More certificates were issued to people from more deprived areas.
NHS Prescription Prepayment Certificate (PPC)
The total number of PPCs purchased has increased every year since 2020/21. There were 2.2 million 12-month certificates issued and 984,000 3-month certificates issued in 2024/25.
The number of PPCs issued increases in older age groups. There is no clear pattern by deprivation in England, with the number of certificates issued in the most and least deprived areas slightly lower than in other areas.
NHS Hormone Replacement Therapy Prescription Prepayment Certificate (HRT PPC)
The HRT PPC was introduced on 1 April 2023. There were 542,000 HRT PPCs issued in 2024/25, a decrease from 2023/24. However, from July 2024 to March 2025 the number of certificates issued was higher than in the same month in the previous year.
The number of certificates issued was higher in less deprived areas.
Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in the South and South West regions generally have higher rates of HRT PPCs issued.
NHS tax credit exemption certificates
As part of the Universal Credit rollout, people have been transferred away from tax credits and onto new benefit schemes. The number of certificates issued declined for a number of years before the end of the service. In 2024/25, 359,000 certificates were issued, compared to 3.7 million in 2018/19.
The age profile of recipients has changed in the last few years of the scheme. In 2018/19, 55% of certificates were issued to people aged under 40 years old but in 2024/25 this dropped to 27% of certificates issued.
Resource list
Financial year summary tables 2018/19 to 2024/25 (Excel: 225KB)Calendar year summary tables 2018 to 2024 (Excel: 226KB)
The background information and methodology note contains information to help you understand and interpret the data and analysis in this release.
Background information and methodology note (HTML)
Pre-release access list (HTML)
This publication has been produced using a reproducible analytical pipeline (RAP) as part of our commitment to transparency and open code. The code used to produce this release will be made available on our Help with Health Costs GitHub repository in due course.
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Contact us
If you have any questions, comments, or would like more information you can email statistics@nhsbsa.nhs.uk.
Responsible statistician: Grace Libby