Support for members

We understand that there may be times in your professional life when personal circumstances mean that you find it hard to meet your professional obligations: health issues or other life events can take over and make it hard to prioritise matters such as CPD deadlines, Practising Certificate renewals or renewing your membership subscription.

There are a number of practical ways we can support you through such times, for example:

• Exercising discretion where procedural deadlines are missed by Members suffering from health issues, for example missing the last date for payment of a subscription fee;
• Helping members manage their CPD or their Practising Certificate applications. Changing membership category where appropriate or securing an exemption from the requirements of the CPD Scheme.

The first step is to get in touch with the Membership Team via cpd_feedback@actuaries.org.uk or by telephone on 0131 240 1325 to explain your situation.

We will appoint a senior member of the team to help you with your regulatory obligations.

Practical examples

Some practical examples to illustrate the support that may be offered by the IFoA:

A Category 2 Member (non PC-holding Fellow or Associate) alerts the Membership Team to the fact he/she will be unable to undertake CPD due to health issues.

The IFoA may, depending on the circumstances:

• grant a partial exemption from the Member’s CPD requirements (where the Member intends to be or has been off work for more than three consecutive months, with at least one month in each applicable CPD year);
• grant a full exemption from the requirements of the CPD Scheme where the IFoA considers that there are exceptional circumstances.

A Category 1 Member (PC holder) advises the Membership Team that he/she expects to be on leave for reasons of health issues for at least 12 months.

The IFoA may, depending on the circumstances:

• grant a partial exemption from the requirements of the CPD Scheme (available where the member is absent from work for more than three consecutive months);
• advise the Member of the options open to him/her if he/she chooses not to renew his/her certificate when it expires, for example:
  
  • automatically becoming a Category 2 member and taking up the option of applying for a partial or full exemption from the CPD requirements – per above; or
  • allow the certificate to lapse and be able to renew within 18 months of the date of expiry of the previous PC.

A Category 5 Member (Student) misses the deadline for recording their Stage 3 PST activity under the CPD Scheme due to health issues.

The IFoA may exercise its discretion and allow the late recording of CPD activity.

A Category 1 Member (PC holder) would like to resign his/her membership to allow him to fully concentrate on recovering from an illness and may or may not be interested in rejoining the IFoA at a future date.

The IFoA may grant the Member a partial exemption from the requirements of the CPD Scheme and advise the Member that on the expiry of his certificate he would automatically transfer to be a Category 2 member and could be granted a full CPD exemption. That exemption would ensure that the Member remains compliant with the CPD Scheme until his/her subscription year ends; at which point, if he/she failed to renew, his/her membership would lapse. The IFoA would set out that if he/she wished to reinstate his/her membership in the future, he/she should follow the reinstatement rules.