Request

I would like to appeal my penalty charge notice as I don't think this is correct, I receive universal credit and I'm heavily in debt, bank statements can be provided on request.

I also am requesting a freedom of information request, I would like to know how many people have actually been fined for this issue, how many people have paid the fine, and also how many people you have taken to court for this issue.

Response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds some of the information you have requested.

In the past 12 months, from 21st May 2024 - 16th May 2025 we have issued a total of 115,463 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) where Universal Credit was claimed on the Dental Treatment Form. Of those PCNs issued, 60,677 have made a payment. 0 have been taken to court.

We do not hold information about the specific circumstances such as mentioned above around debt. The PCNs were issued as no exemption/benefit was found in our matching process with DWP and no exemption/benefit was provided after the enquiry letter was issued.

Publishing this response

Please note that this information will be published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02776

Your personal details will be removed from the published response.

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.

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.