# The Primary Ophthalmic Services Regulations 2008, Regulation 3: Sight Tests - eligibility


(1) A person may have his sight tested under primary ophthalmic services if, at the time of the testing of sight, he is a person—
(a) who is under the age of 16 years;
(b) who is under the age of 19 years and receiving qualifying full-time education;
(c) who is aged 60 years or more;
(d) whose resources are treated in accordance with paragraph (2) as being less than, or equal to, his requirements;
(e) who requires to wear a complex appliance;
(f) who is registered blind or partially sighted under section 29 of the National Assistance Act 1948;
(g) who has been diagnosed as suffering from diabetes or glaucoma, or has been advised by an ophthalmologist that he is predisposed to the development of glaucoma;
(h) who is aged 40 or over and is the parent, brother, sister or child of a person who has been diagnosed as suffering from glaucoma; or
(i) who is a prisoner.
(2) A person’s resources shall be treated as being less than or equal to his requirements if—
(a) he is in receipt of income support;
(b) he is a member of the same family as a person who is in receipt of income support;
(c) his income resources as calculated in accordance with Part II of, and Schedule 1 to, the National Health Service (Travel Expenses and Remission of Charges) Regulations 2003 for the purposes of remission of charges under the Act are less than or equal to his requirements as so calculated or exceed his requirements as so calculated by fifty per cent or less of the amount of the charge specified in regulation 3(1)(b) (supply of drugs and appliances by chemists) of the National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2000 and his capital resources as so calculated do not exceed the capital limit;
(d) he is a member of the same family as a person falling within sub-paragraph (c),
(e) he is in receipt of an income-based jobseeker’s allowance;
(f) he is a member of the same family as a person falling within sub-paragraph (e);
(g) he is a member of a family—
(i) one member of which is receiving—
(aa) working tax credit and child tax credit,
(bb) working tax credit which includes a disability element, or
(cc) child tax credit, but is not eligible for working tax credit, and
(ii) where the relevant income of the person or persons to whom an award of a tax credit is made under section 14 of the Tax Credits Act 2002 is determined at the time of the award not to exceed £15,050;
(h) he is a person in respect of whom there is a current notice of entitlement; or
(i) he is a member of the same family as a person who is receiving pension credit guarantee credit.
(3) In paragraph (1)—
(a) in sub-paragraph (b), “qualifying full-time education” means full-time instruction at a recognised educational establishment or by other means accepted as comparable by the Secretary of State, and, for the purpose of this definition, a “recognised educational establishment” means an establishment recognised by the Secretary of State as being, or as comparable to, a school, college or university; and
(b) in sub-paragraph (g), “ophthalmologist” means a doctor whose name is included in the register of specialists kept by the General Medical Council under article 13(1) of the General and Specialist Medical Practice (Education, Training and Qualifications) Order 2003 and in respect of whom that register indicates his speciality to be ophthalmology.
(4) In paragraph (2)—
(a) in sub-paragraphs (b), (d) and (i), “family” has the meaning given to it by section 137(1) of the 1992 Act, as it applies to income support;
(b) in sub-paragraph (f), “family” has the meaning given to it by section 35 of the Jobseekers Act 1995; and
(c) in sub-paragraph (g), “family” has the meaning given to it by regulation 2(2) of the Tax Credits (Definition and Calculation of Income) Regulations 2002.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1186/regulation/3 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/primary-ophthalmic-services-regulations-2008/regulation-3
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.