The NUS Welfare Campaign’s main focus

This year, we are fighting one of the main inequalities students face compared to other low-income groups- the fact that students do not automatically qualify for free prescriptions.

This is a brilliant opportunity and very timely. We are planning on feeding in to the review process at every stage possible, and looking to find opportunities to represent our views to the group. In December we met with the chair of the Health Select Committee.

In terms of winning free prescriptions, the cost neutral argument (highlighted by the government above) is very important, and we will be doing some research to back up our belief that making prescriptions free for students would actual save money on administration. Interestingly,87% of prescriptions are dispensed free of charge in England and 92% in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and around 50% of the population are eligible for free prescriptions. Given that up to the age of 19, prescriptions are free, the amount made from students is tiny. There is also an important argument to be had in persuading the government to give back something to students in light of the introduction of fees this year.

What we’ll be doing on this campaign this term….

I’m meeting Andy Burnham the Minister with responsibility for prescriptions in the forthcoming weeks, to take our case forward.

We’re also planning to…

Give some time to some number crunching on the maths around the cost neutral argument.

• Find information on the impact of prescription costs on disabled and very ill students and how this impacts of access.
• Contact key people within the Treasury
• Use case studies within our lobbying efforts.
• Contacting the BMA

We’ll also be aiming to get you and your students more involved….

Participation and communication

• Find case studies which can be used both for lobbying and press work (use NEC for this and ask for one per region).
• Encourage SUs to start petitions on the issue (target = 50 unions getting 10% of their students to sign)
• Map meetings and the route of the campaign online to communicate national progress with the membership.
• Provide more information about our arguments and relevant stats online.
• Write model submissions for unions to feed into the review.
• Create an online poll to engage students in the issue (with RSS feeds so that SUs can put it onto their sites).

We’ll be in touch in the next few weeks with more info on the petition. In the mean time if you have any case studies of students who have missed out on prescriptions because of the cost, please let us know.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and feelings on this campaign. You can email me on veronica@nus.org.uk

Happy New Year!

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