Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

‘Can you please tell me how many of these penalties you have issued since the introduction of UC to this date?’

On 17 January 2025 we sent you the following clarification request

Can you please clarify if you require information on penalty charge notices (PCNs) for all exemption categories or only Universal Credit PCNs?

Can you also please confirm the date you require the information from (‘the introduction of UC’)?

On 23 January 2025 you clarified your request as follows

‘Only universal credit.

From the introduction’

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 19 December 2024.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Our response

We issued 96,489 Penalty Charge Notices between 23 February 2024 and 29 January 2025, to people who claimed Universal Credit on their Dental Treatment Form.

Please note, we adapted our process in late 2023 to check against people who had claimed Universal Credit on their dental treatment form. Therefore, we did not issue any Penalty Charge Notices prior to 23 February 2024 for those who had claimed Universal Credit.

The Penalty Charge Notices were issued as no valid exemption or benefit was found. The Penalty Charge Notices were issued following an enquiry letter where no exemption or benefit was provided by the patient. We may have issued Penalty Charge Notices to people in receipt of Universal Credit who claimed a different exemption on their dental treatment form, however, no exemption or benefit was found as part of our matching process.

Data Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing, the data please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

Reusing the data and copyright

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2025” Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.