Free eye testing and glasses
It's very expensive to do an eye test and buy a pair of glasses in UK. But amazingly some people can get them all for free!
Three years ago, my glasses lenses were scratched and need to replaced, and the frame was greasy which always become loosen and the glasses would slip down to my nose point, especially when I was sweating.
My wife's brass spectacles frame rusted, and the rustic brass nose bridge left two green marks on both side of her nose after wearing the glass one day long.
But one day I received a letter with a NHS medical card, we were granted free medical treat even included eye testing and a pair of glasses value of no more than 65 pounds!
It's unbelievable! Glasses is a kind of prescription same as drugs from a doctor. I have no idea so far to associate spectacles with medicines. I heard from my uncle that one father bought long-sighted glasses for his son then damaged his son's eyesight after several weeks.
I bought my last glasses from a shop in University Campus when I was studying in Shanghai, which also offer typing, printing and photocopying. No eye test whatsoever, I just told shop keeper how much degrees of my shortsightedness ( which was roughly 20/200) was, and how much diopters of lens I needed, I knew this because I had health check each time when I was admited to a new school (college or university) or graduated from that. One of this health check is reading a Snellen Visual Acuity Chart.
Below is a list of person who can get free eye test and free glasses:
- are getting Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or the guarantee credit of Pension Credit. Your partner and children will also be entitled to free tests. If you are getting Working Tax Credit and/or Child Tax Credit, you may be entitled to free NHS sight tests, depending on your income
- are under 16
- live in Scotland
- are under 19 and in full-time education
- are 60 or over
- need complex lenses
- are registered blind or partially sighted
- have diabetes or glaucoma
- are aged 40 or over and are the parent, brother, sister or child of someone with glaucoma, or you have been advised that you are at risk of glaucoma
- are a war pensioner, and need a sight test because of a disability for which you get a war pension
- are a hospital patient, and need a sight test for the management of your eye condition.
Do I need to make an appointment to see a doctor?