I am confused by this dentist's fine

This is not a cry for help, nor is it a whinge. It's an attempt to illustrate the problems that I face having memory difficulties. This week I received a penalty charge from the NHS because I indicated that I was 'receiving NHS Tax Credit Exemption Certificate.' They want £120.60 by the 11^th December.

It's something I will definitely need help with: formal documents like this make very little sense to me, and they arrive in the mail so thick and fast that I can't keep on top of them.

I've mentioned before, I have brain damage, memory difficulties and depression. I've worked most of my adult life, with minimal success, and since I was 29 I've been in receipt of some low-rate benefits- I was on Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Working Tax Credits (WTC). I've needed a lot of help getting them and staying up to date with information relating to them.

In January my DLA was stopped, as the government was replacing this with the controversial Personal Independence Payment (PIP), something I had to apply (and fight tooth and nail) for. In February I was still in receipt of WTC and by March I had been allocated an award of PIP (albeit less than I was getting from DLA.) Around this same time, it now seems, my WTC were stopped. I was, for some reason, under the impression that the two were now being paid together and that WTC were part of the PIP payment. This is the kind of mistake I make, due to the condition that makes me eligible for PIP in the first place.

I thought my finances were under strain; it now seems I'm getting to the bottom of the issue.

On 7^th September, I went to my dentist and claimed that I was on WTC, making me eligible for free treatment. I was not. The PIP I'm receipt of apparently does not cover me for dentist visits, so it looks like I'm going to have to pay £120.60. This is an honest mistake, one of many I make every week.

The exemption certificate that I have, a plastic card the size of a credit card, expired at the end of April. I, typically, forgot to chase this up.

I guess there's a few options- I work in social services so there are colleagues I could ask for advice, and I could always push the boat out- on my PIP application form I explained that formal documents like these make very little sense to me. Unfortunately, because I speak well and have decent written skills, social services will have nothing to do with me and any NHS support I receive is always short-term (I'm not meeting any NHS people right now.) The only talking support I get are my ever-loyal and over-relied-on parents, and my line manager. I suppose I could bring this to Andy's Man Club and see what advice they could give. And ultimately, I could try to get the fine waived on disability grounds. It's not like I tried to blag them. This happened because of the condition.

Another issue: I'm on Sertraline, an antidepressant, and have been for some time. I've been telling the chemist I'm eligible for free treatment. This site doesn't suggest I am: there's no mention of PIP, only the tax credits that I forgot had been stopped. I don't know what I told the chemist I was in receipt of, so am I about to be bombarded with numerous fines for claiming free prescriptions? I did have an NHS exemption card in my wallet but

I started by suggesting that this blog post was not a cry for help. That said, any advice that anyone can give me, I'd be grateful for. matthewtuckey@hotmail.com.