RCM Membership at Retirement – Old rule being applied unfairly

I retired from the NHS in July 2016 and took my NHS pension at 55.  I had worked as a midwife for over 30 years.

At the RCM I enquired about retired membership as believe it is appropriate to continue to have access to help and assistance if there were issues with a birth or my care in the last few years of my professional life.

I was told that I was ELIGIBLE because I had paid in more than 15 years of paid membership fees. In fact, I have paid in for nearly 31yrs!  I was told I was INELIGIBLE because I am still doing paid work to supplement my NHS pension.

	Annual Fee
Full membership	£249.84
Associate Membership	£164.64
Retired Membership	£42.96

Source: rcm.org.uk

The RCM definition of a retired midwife is a midwife….

“.. who have previously held full membership for 15yrs or more and who have ceased to be actively employed due to retirement.

Surely this means actively employed as a “midwife”. This actually means according to the RCM  “any paid employment”!

Source: rcm.org.

 

I am not working any more, in any capacity, with regards to Midwifery. I am withdrawing from the Nursing and Midwifery Council Register in May 2017.

It is very disappointing that because I have to do other work to supplement my 30 yr NHS pension, the RCM are victimising me and asking me to pay for Associate Membership.  I restated to them that I am not working in the NHS or as a midwife in any capacity anymore. It seems that it is all about my ability to pay, rather than retirement from Midwifery.

I am sure I am not the only 55yr old taking early retirement who will be caught in this trap.  So, I am endeavouring to share this RCM rule debacle on social media to raise awareness.  It is my opinion and I am sure many of you will share with me that it is not appropriate to ask any midwife to pay more than the retirement membership once she has retired as a midwife.

 

I have contacted senior members of the RCM to alert them to this problem.  I will be directly contacting President Lesley Page.

I suspect this is an old rule and would apply if someone had retired after 60 and would be in receipt of their NHS pension and their state pension.  I won’t get my state pension till I am 67 because of the changes to national state pensions.

This old rule needs to be changed – please join my campaign.  Please share with your Midwifery Colleagues who are members of the RCM

If you retire as a Midwife you should be able to access Retired RCM Membership at the reduced fee.

Please sign petition at http://www.signand share. : Royal College of Midwives retirement 

https://www.signandshare.org/p/royal-college-of-midwives-retirement-membership-fee/