Promoting NHS prescription prepayment certificates
Pharmacy teams can help to raise awareness by displaying posters in their pharmacy to remind patients about the savings they can make with prepayment certificates (PPCs). PPCs offer savings for those needing multiple prescription items or when a patient is prescribed a listed HRT medicine. The cost of each type of PPC has been frozen for 2025/26. More information about PPCs can be found here.
A HC20 poster for standard PPCs can be ordered from the Primary Care Support England (PCSE) online portal. Pharmacies will need to login to their PCSE Online accounts and place the order for the posters. For any enquiries, the PCSE Customer Support Centre can be contacted via telephone on 0333 014 2884. HRT PPC posters can be downloaded from the NHS Business Services Authority resource library.
Community Pharmacy England has also designed downloadable and print ready prepayment certificate posters for display in community pharmacies.
PPC Poster 2025/26 (black and white)
Pharmacy teams should note that selling of any PPCs is unfunded activity and it is optional for pharmacies to sell any PPCs in the pharmacy. To ensure patients select the PPC that is right for them, we recommend directing patients to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) website to complete their PPC purchase.
- A standard (3 or 12-month) PPC can be purchased from www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescriptioncosts/nhs-prescription-prepayment-certificate-ppc or telephone 0300 330 1341.
- Patients can purchase a HRT PPC online at www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/hrt-ppc or telephone 0300 330 2089.
Selling of PPCs in pharmacy may be beneficial for patients who require assistance, for example, due to difficulties using and/or accessing the internet. Please note, pharmacies currently registered to sell standard PPCs no longer need to log into a separate online system to process the PPCs sold through the pharmacy, these can now be recorded on MYS using the tab ‘Sell a Prescription Payment Certificate (PPC)’.
It is important to note, if a patient pays a prescription charge but later purchases and backdates a PPC, the pharmacy team are only able to issue a refund if the patient was provided with an FP57 receipt at the point of payment. FP57 receipts cannot be issued at a later date. To claim a refund, the patient can return to any community pharmacy with their FP57 form along with evidence of their PPC. For more information on FP57 receipts, please visit our page Prescription charge refund procedure.
If a patient is unsure or needs more guidance, they can use the NHSBSA’s online eligibility checker. Further information for patients can be found here.
