• you are 60 or over

• you are under 16, or under 19 and in full-time education

• you, or a member of your family, receive Income Support, the Guarantee Credit of Pension Credit, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or, in certain cases, Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit

• you are pregnant or have had a baby in the last 12 months

• you receive a War Disablement Pension and need prescriptions for your war injury

• you are a hospital inpatient

• your weekly income is low enough (see details of the Low Income Scheme)

You will need to show your pharmacist proof that you qualify for free prescriptions.

You can also get free prescriptions if you have:

• any long-term physical disability which prevents you from leaving home without the help of another person

• a permanent fistula like a caecostomy, colostomy, laryngostomy or ileostomy, needing continuous dressing or an appliance

• epilepsy that needs continuous anti-convulsive therapy

• diabetes mellitus (except where treatment is by diet only)

• diabetes insipidus or other kinds of hypopituitarism

• myxoedema

• hypoparathyroidism

• forms of hypoadrenalism (including Addison’s disease) for which specific substitution therapy is essential

• my asthenia gravis.

How can I apply for free prescriptions?

If you have any of the above medical conditions, ask your doctor to fill in form HCIIB.

Prescriptions will be free in Northern Ireland from April 2010.