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S1 Medical cost recovery from UK
Hi All - here goes....
I am a UK pension resident in Belgium and contribute to a Mutuale.
I had an accident which necessitated an ambulance from Luxembourg to take me to a closer hospital in Belgium.
I have had my medical costs reimbursed but the Mutuale would not pay the ambulance as this, they said, had to be claimed from the DWP UK.
Question 1) I understand that as a pensioner all my medical costs are recovered from the UK under the S1 document - correct?
When I claimed the ambulance costs from DWP and sent the relevant invoice with details of the ambulance journey to them, DWP said
"The authorities in Luxembourg returned your documents to us advising that they were unable to tariff the receipt for reimbursement without a copy of the back page of the invoice with the details of transport on it."
If you can send this invoice to us, we can then forward it to the authorities in Luxembourg for them to reconsider and advise us if any reimbursement can be made. "
Well - that was interesting as the invoice had the travel details on the reverse side! I now have to resubmit the document so that:
"Could you please return all the original medical documents to our department? We will then resend them to the Luxembourg authorities who will decide the level of refund. "
So -Question 2) Luxembourg are going to refund the ambulance cost - not the UK?
Can anyone explain what should be happening or preferably the pointer to the relevant documentation ?
Many thanks.
Very sorry to hear about your news.
Try sending your information to Europe Direct https://europa.eu/european-union/contact/write-to-us_en and ask them to give you an answer and they might be able to help you or point you in the right direction.
Can you please let me know where I can get a copy of the S1 form?
Thanks.
bobk 100:
You should have a UK-issued (and valid) EHIC card which you should always carry with you when travelling outside Belgium (even to the UK). That would probably have speeded up reimbursement of the ambulance costs subject to eligibility. Beyond that, dealing with the Overseas Health Care Team at Newcastle always tends to be a bit of a nightmare, although if you get hold of the right individual they can be very helpful. I think that it is just a case of persevering. It is definitely the UK who will refund (partially) the ambulance cost but they do so only in line with the rules that would apply to a GDL resident in the same circumstances (and that would also be the case if you were eligible for a Belgian EHIC card because you had worked here long enough to qualify for a Belgian pension).
See https://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/EHIC/Pages/about-the-ehic... for details of the UK EHIC card, select the pull down "Who can apply for a UK-issued EHIC" and scroll down.
Anonymous:
If you were eligible for an S1 form you would have been sent one.
I was already a UK pensioner (albeit by only a few months) when I moved permanently to Belgium. When I advised the DWP at Newcastle of my new Belgian address and bank account details, they automatically sent the S1 form to my Belgian address. My (younger) wife, on the other hand, became a UK pensioner when she was already resident in Belgium, but again she was automatically sent the S1 form as a result of the pension claim process. (If she had actually worked in Belgium, she would have claimed the UK proportion of her overall pension through the Belgian authorities and would not have received an S1 form, but she would have continued her mutuality membership through the Belgian pension scheme).
