Posted By Geoff Burt An employee has recently paid £198 for a pair of spectacles with 'basic' frames and prescription lenses from a High St optician. A certificate has been provided by the optician showing that the glasses are needed solely for working with VDUs. Am I alone in thinking these sort of costs must, surely, be outside the intent and spirit of the DSE regulations? Does anybody have an idea of the general range of prices for basic specs, and if possible, details of suppliers they would recommend. Thanks Geoff

Posted By Ron Young Hi Geoff, To comply with the DSE Regs, we provide a £50 voucher for basic "corrective appliances" and we have not had any complaints. Other fellow H&S managers who I have contact with have similar policies in place. When I worked H&S in manufacturing, the costs Tony Birchall alluded to were about right but I now believe that a National chain can do safety specs at £44. I would think that £198 is extracting the urine.

Posted By John Ridd The wording in the Guidance to the Regs is:"Employers' liability for costs is restricted to payment of the cost of a basic appliance, ie of a type and quality adeqeuate for its function. If users wish to choose more costly appliances ... the employer is not obliged to pay for these." If the Optician is saying that the £198 payment was required to meet these criteria, then I would be inclined to make arrangements with a different company - "Employers are free to specify that users' tests and corrections are provided by a particular company or professional." On a point of ergonomics - I would not sanction the provision of bifocal lenses for VDU use; indeed, it is in particular those people wearing bi-focals who I would often advise to get a prescription for single focal length VDU lenses. Even varifocal lenses are often unsuitable.

Posted By Sarah J Shaw Just to add my five pennies worth. We provide both DSE and safety glasses the costs break down as follows for the DSE users: £15 for the eye and eyesight test £45 for the prescription including lenses If you have a lot of users you can get travelling opticians who will visit your site to do the tests, charges for this are approx £10. We use a company where we send away for the prescription and you can get frames for under £30, but this could cause some problems. As the others have stated, our policy then states that any costs above this must be paid for by the employee. If you want a copy e-mail me. Sarah

Posted By Ken Taylor I think that local charge differences may apply. You don't seem to get much change from £100 in some areas.

Posted By Michael Webb We provide our staff with 'Eyecare Vouchers' from a company called Accor (020 7887 1234)to the tune of £45. We spoke to several local opticians (both large and small companies) and concluded that £45 would pay for basis corrective appliances. Prior to issuing them, we spoke to local opticians to ensure they would receive these vouchers! Hope this is of some help. Mike

Posted By Ian Minty My organisation pays the first £50 pounds. But we are in discussion at the moment because 2 years have elapsed since I received them and the lenses are now badly scratched and my employer will only pay towards another pair if my prescription has changed. I disagree with this as the pair that I have are now substandard and I think that they should be paying towards a replacement pair.

Posted By Geoff Burt Lots of responses and with similar ideas. I've can now go back to the client with details of various suppliers and approximate costs. I think they will have to let this one go but it does show the importance of putting proper arrangements in place before they are needed rather than waiting for a 'test case'. Thanks for all the inputs both on the forum and by email. Geoff

Posted By Mark Large My company uses Specsavers too. We have a corporate scheme with them whereby should specs be required the user can choose from a £30 and £46 range. We are invoiced. I think we could defend it if we only offered the £30 range. They allow them to see the screen don't they! If they want anthing more expensive than £46 they pay the extra themselves. The only expception to this was when someone had an allergy to most metals. Platinum was the only thing the could wear. Varifocals aren't specific so don't come under the regs. You have no obligation to provide, its up to you to decide if you want to out of good practice. Do you really want the user to have to change glasses all the time? Basically though price what is readily availble in your area. Add a little on top to appear to be giving some options and I think you have a defendable policy. I'd be surprised if £200 is the going rate for basic specs in your area unless you work somewhere really upmarket.

Posted By Mark Large £16 for the test. For £30 & £46 you get a basic frame and single vision lenses. So if i send someone and they are prescribed £62 is the most I pay in total for the test and the specs.

Posted By Ken Taylor Thanks Mark and Sarah. I suppose I am looking at Surrey prices. The Specsavers route sounds interesting. I shall have to contact them.

Posted By Mark Large Some sort of adjustable monitor arm might have done the trick with regard screen height. That ain't cheap though.

Posted By Ian Mycroft I think Specsavers should be giving some of us a discount for the recommendations.