As the holiday season approaches, local MP Mark Pawsey, is warning residents about the existence of a number of websites which charge people for European Health Insurance Cards (EHICs).
Mark said: “EHICs are available free of charge for people who are ordinarily resident in the UK. As people prepare for holidays, it is important they are aware of websites which charge for a free service and only use the official application found at www.gov.uk/european-health-insurance-card.”
“The Government is taking action to tackle websites which are charging for EHICs, as well as websites targeting other government services. The Government Digital Service has been working with Google to identify advertisements which mislead consumers and as a result Google have taken down a series of advertisements and will continue to remove them and close the accounts of repeat offenders. The Government Digital Service is also working with other search engines to tackle this.”
“If residents have been affected they can report misleading websites at www.gov.uk/misleadingwebsites. The most important things to bear in mind when applying for a EHIC are it should be free of charge and if you are asked to pay you are not on the official website.”