{"id":308722,"date":"2025-11-23T10:01:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T10:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/308722\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T10:01:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T10:01:16","slug":"chancellor-says-how-much-you-will-pay-for-prescriptions-from-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/308722\/","title":{"rendered":"Chancellor says how much you will pay for prescriptions from April"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Chancellor has announced how much you will pay for prescriptions from April, 2026<\/p>\n<p>Neil Shaw Assistant Editor<\/p>\n<p>06:24, 21 Nov 2025<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_GettyImages-521704389.jpg\" alt=\"People in England have to pay for prescriptions\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>People in England have to pay for prescriptions<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"accrington\">Prescription charges in England will be frozen next year, the Chancellor has confirmed ahead of the Budget. Rachel Reeves said the cost of living is still putting pressure on households and \u201cno one should put their health at risk\u201d because they can not afford medication.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"accrington\">The price of a single item will remain at \u00a39.90, while three-month and annual pre-payment certificates will also be frozen for 2026\/27. The move is an extension of a freeze on prescription charges announced in April, which was the first in three years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"accrington\">The latest freeze is expected to save patients \u00a312 million next year, according to the Government. Ms Reeves said: \u201cNo one should put their health at risk because they can\u2019t afford their medication, and as the cost of living still puts pressure on households I\u2019m extending the cash freeze on prescription charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"accrington\">\u201cSince taking office, we\u2019ve been committed to fixing the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lancs.live\/all-about\/nhs\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NHS<\/a>, and waiting lists are down by 230,000 over the past year. At next week\u2019s Budget I will take the fair choices to deliver what matters most to the country: cutting waiting lists, cutting the cost of living and cutting the national debt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"accrington\">Olivier Picard, chairman of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), welcomed the freeze, but reiterated the organisation\u2019s call for free prescriptions. He said: \u201cMany people choose not to collect some or all their prescription medicines because of cost, with potentially dire health consequences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"accrington\">\u201cAs pharmacists, we understand the healing power of medicines. So naturally we oppose arbitrary barriers to people getting the medicines they need. The prescription charge is a tax that especially hits the working poor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"accrington\">\u201cIt\u2019s good news the Chancellor is freezing prescription charges, but we\u2019ve said for years that prescription medicines should be free, as they are in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There are many exemptions for prescriptions but people should not be charged for vital medicines, it\u2019s a tax on being ill.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"accrington\">The Chancellor will make her Budget announcement on Wednesday November 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chancellor has announced how much you will pay for prescriptions from April, 2026 Neil Shaw Assistant Editor&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[97,243,1624],"class_list":{"0":"post-308722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-nhs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}