Medical card review and UK Contributory State Pension?

Fogmatic

Anyone out there know anything about this? (It'll probably take while to find out from official sources, and it would nice to end the uncertainty!).

During a Medical Card Review, the HSE requires something called an 'E Form', if 'claiming under EU regulations' (Whatever that means?)
I couldn't find what an E Form is on the web, so emailed the question to the HSE (with a couple of other simple ones). But then we had to catch the deadline for the review form. I sent the form in, thinking they'd tell us if a document was missing from our application. And that we could send in said document even after the review deadline. But now I'm not so sure?
Then the HSE replied to our email, saying 'An E form is required if you have any social welfare entitlement in another EU country', ...'e.g. a pension'.
Does that include Contributary State Pension?

They also said E Forms are issued from the other country on request.
About the same time, the UK pension people also finally replied to an email about it, and referred us to their Overseas Healthcare Team. I rang them today, hoping to find out if we need/needed an E Form; but they couldn't tell me, as they didn't know what the HSE's definition was of 'a social welfare entitlement, e.g. a pension'.
Yes, I will ask the HSE, but we can't ring them till Monday, and heard it can be difficult to get through (and it took over 3 weeks to get a reply to that first email)!

Finally, in case it answers anything, a bit of detail;
We're a married couple who moved from the UK to Ireland about 20 years ago (still UK citizens, in case it makes any difference). We're now on (Irish) non-contributory state pension, and my husband is also getting a small Contributory State Pension from the UK.
We're under 70, and recently lost our Medical Cards following the review (my husband was apparently randomly selected - we hadn't been aware that we might no longer qualify). The HSE assessed our joint weekly income (including 'means' from savings) as just €25 over our threshold for the GP Visit Card, so I'd like to make sure we haven't missed anything that might have kept us under it.
There aren't any allowances that we failed to claim, and our GP backed up our application as much as possible (we'd mentioned on the HSE form that we needed regular prescriptions, and they sent us a form with their first refusal letter, for our GP to fill in & send them).

Cushie Butterfield

What you're looking for is what used to be an E121 Form. This been since replaced by an S1 Form.

You'll find more information about the S1 Form & it's uses on this pdf document: http://www.kvg.org/file/mobiledok/s1_zusatz_en.pdf

You should be able to get this form from the international Pension Centre tvp.internationalqueries@thepensionservice.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)191 218 7777

You may need to get a separate form for each of you, but you can check that with them.

Fogmatic

Thank you Cushie!

So, in the HSE's parlance, 'E Form' means a E121/S1? (If so, it doesn't apply to us, as it's only for people working in a country they're not resident in).

I haven't been able to pin down the subject in searches, what with 'E-form' also meaning any kind of online form!

Cushie Butterfield

The S1 is also used for people who have retired abroad (within EU) who would normally be entitled to NHS care if they lived in UK.

lasno

In case of a UK state pension the E form is not required. This has been confirmed to me by the HSE. I have just received my medical card under EU regulations. You only need to show proof that you are receiving your pension from the UK. However since you receive an Irish state pension you do not qualify automatically for a medical card under EU regulations. Unfortunately you have to go down the means test route. Best of luck with your application.

Fogmatic

Many thanks, Cushie and lasno.

Yes, we were means tested with the medical card review. And I'm going to have to dig out all those bank statements & other documents again soon!
We'd assumed the pension people in Sligo knew about the UK pension (we did apply for it through them!). Our Irish non-contrib. pension also got reduced slightly, but that turns out to be coincidencental. I rang them the other day to check that they knew the UK one had been granted, and they didn't (we have to write and tell them).
I also learned that the UK pension amount will be deducted from the Irish one. On the other hand, that'll get us below the GP Visit Card threshold (unless they change the goalposts again!), so we''ll be doing a fresh Medical Card application.
Our savings have been eaten into a bit more since the medical card review business started, so taking that into account should also soften the blow a little!